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Published by CompNet Systems on

Bininj (human) bones

This one has a big ceremony called bukkabud. This one, it’s not from today. It’s not new generation, this one here, it’s from long time [ago] when there was no coffin. Before, when bininj (Aboriginal man) or daluk (Aboriginal woman) died they were buried in the sand or put on top [of a platform] in the sun to get the bones dry.  In my language, when the bones become dry, we call it murrngno. When the bones are dry and the sweat and smell are gone, the family would dig up or collect the bones. Then they would paint them, wrap them in paperbark and have a big ceremony, bukkabud, for that person with bunggul (dancing). My father taught me this ceremony and the songlines. [For the final burial], the bones were put in a lorrkkon [hollow log burial pole] and there would be another big ceremony.

 

Jack Nawilil, October 2020.

 

Categories: Maningrida Arts & Culture

Name: Jack Yurrulbbirri Nawilil

Language: Rembarrnga, Mayali

Community: Maningrida

Biography:

Mayali and Rembarrnga artist Kamarrang Jack Nawilil is a senior member of the Balngarra clan, who lives and works at Bolkjdam, an outstation located near Maningrida community in central Arnhem Land. A song man and cultural leader, he works across painting on bark, carved sculpture and ceremonial objects such as mularra (morning star poles), mako (didgeridoo), lorrkkon (hollow logs) and body adornments using feathers, native beeswax and hand-spun bark fibre string. Common subjects of his work include representations of significant spirit beings, such as wyarra (skeleton), wurum (fish-increasing) and namorrodo (profane) spirits, and important ancestors, including the female creator ancestor Ngalkodjek who travelled from Elcho Island in the East.

The narratives represented in Nawilil’s artworks are extremely complex and often antithetical to Western knowledge systems. His artworks reference and manifest multiple places, clans and events that span vast distances and timeframes. To audiences who are not initiated and socialised in bininj (Aboriginal) cultural practices and history, the true and complete meanings of these artworks cannot be fully grasped. His artworks challenge the viewer to grapple with a different way of being in, and understanding, the world.

Nawilil’s work is held in public and private collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, the Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. He has exhibited with commercial galleries around Australia and overseas for nearly four decades.

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