Yawkyawk is a word from the Aboriginal Kunwinjku language, meaning ‘young woman’ and ‘young woman spirit being’.
Sometimes compared to the European notion of mermaids, yawkyawks are usually depicted with the tails of fish. They have long hair, associated with trailing blooms of algae, typically found in Arnhem Land streams and rock pools.
Name: Janet Marawarr
Language: Kune, Kuninjku
Community: Maningrida
Biography:
Janet is a senior Kuninjku artist at Babbarra Designs working with lino tiles and screen print designs. Janet is renown for her use of cut out lino tiles which she prints in intuitive repeat patterns on a range of textile surfaces. Janet regards textile design as an opportunity to work with colour and new methods to express her djang (ancestral creation stories).
‘I like lino, print my design and doing different way to print my lino, different colours and different way. I print lino Yawkyawk (spirit woman) and Ngaldjorlhbo (mother of Everything). This was an old lady and she create that language and the world before. I also print also Rolk (maggot), my mother design cause I’m the Djunkay (land manager) for her.’ Janet Marawarr 2020
As well as her artistic work with Bábbarra Women’s Centre, she is an established bark painter with Maningrida Arts & Crafts and she works for the Maningrida Night Patrol, a community safety service.
Kunkurra (Spiral Wind) ‘My designs, they are all alive living up in my head’- Janet Marawarr Janet Marawarr has depicted kunkurra, the spiralling wind associated with several sites in the Kardbam clan. On one level, Read more…
Kayawa (baby floor mat) and Lorrkon This design features the Lorrkkon tile by renowned artists and arts worker Raylene Bonson. In a hopscotch pattern, Joy has printed her own Kayawa (baby floor mat) in between.
Yawkyawk and Wak ‘Yawkyawk swim underneath the rock. They always stay there. When the sun comes out they come out from underneath the river, make themselves warm. They sit and they look around. When they Read more…