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Buluwana (Kuninjku Spirit Woman) – J. Wurrkidj

This design depicts Buluwana (Kuninjku Spirit Woman) with a dilly bag on her head, holding a yam and digging stick.

“She’s an old lady from our ancestor creation time, before mimih spirits roamed the land. Her skin name is Wamuddjan– she is from the Dhuwa moiety. When the mimih came to our country, she turned into stone out Yikarrakkal and Manmoyi way.

She lives in a sacred place, where she turned to stone she lives there now forever. She is an important woman for my people.

I draw her because she my dreaming. I can’t tell the full story about Buluwana, because it’s a little bit secret, but it’s okay for me to paint her and share these parts. My people can know the full Buluwana story, and the djungkay (caretaker) can tell the full Buluwana story too.”

Categories: Babbarra Women’s Centre

Name: Jennifer Wurrkidj

Language: Kuninjku

Community: Maningrida

Biography:

Jennifer Wurrkidj is a highly regarded textile artist who has been working at Bábbarra Designs since 2007. Her print designs often feature bush foods and food-collecting and reference the activities of ancestor beings and the ceremonial sites of her homeland, Mumeka.

Jennifer works at Bábbarra Women’s Centre alongside other members of her family who are also accomplished artists: her mother, Helen Lanyinwanga, and sister Deborah Wurrkidj. She is a daughter of Australia’s most highly acclaimed bark painter, John Mawurndjul, and she is renowned, in her own right, for her bark paintings, hollow logs and carved sculptures. Jennifer’s artwork has been exhibited throughout Australia and her textile art is in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia.

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