Coiling technique was introduced in the 1920s at Goulburn Island to the Maung people by missionaries and quickly spread to the mainland. Many artists produce coiled baskets of varied shapes, ranging from small round baskets to large oval baby baskets made from dyed pandanus. Artists combine colours and patterns to obtain intricate new graphic patterns.
Name: Josephine Wurrkidj
Language: Kuninjku
Community: Maningrida
Biography:
Josephine is a painter and sculptor. She specialising in bark painting, dolobbo bim, and carvings depicting spirit beings, such as yawkyawk and mimih that reside on her clan estate, Kurulk. She is the daughter of acclaimed artists John Mawurndjul and Kay Lindjuwanga.
Like other Kuninjku artists, Wurrkidj maintains the cultural knowledge and practices of working with natural materials: ochres which are mixed with water and PVA fixative and applied with manyilk (sedge grass) to bark (stingybark) in the Wet season and lorrkkon (hollow log burial poles) and spirit carvings in the Dry season.
Lorrkon (Hollow Log) The Lorrkon or bone pole coffin ceremony was the final ceremony in a sequence of mortuary rituals celebrated by the people of Arnhem Land. This ceremony involves the placing of the deceased’s Read more…
Nawarlah – Brown River Stingray We hunt the Nawarlah (Brown River Stingray) during the wet season. There is a plant with a yellow flower that tells us that it is the right time. We know Read more…
Nawarlah – Brown River Stingray We hunt the Nawarlah (Brown River Stingray) during the wet season. There is a plant with a yellow flower that tells us that it is the right time. We know Read more…