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Ngalng – Janet Marawarr

Ngalng (fresh water yabby)

‘This is a story from Mankorlod. This is a djang story. This is the creation story about the fresh water yabby. Starting with the stone, that’s the raw one and the cooked one. The stone rock suddenly turned to ngalng, in a flash. Ngalng started growing and turned into a body. It’s a magic one and it can change from rock to ngalng to human and back to ngalng. Now it’s a ngalng. 

The country is near Mankorlod and Korlobididah. The ngalng is stuck there forever on the rock at Korlobididah,’ 

‘There is also duruk (camp dog) called ‘Djanbokkon’. This is a duruk that comes from water and no one has seen it. This is a true duruk, he goes everywhere in the country. His body is striped. He is a secret dog and he has a secret story.’ 

Janet Marawarr 2022

Categories: Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation

Name: Janet Marawarr

Language: Kune, Kuninjku

Community: Maningrida

Biography:

Janet Marawarr is a senior Kuninjku artist at Babbarra Designs working across Lino and screen print on fabric. Marawarr regards textile design as an opportunity to work with colour and new methods to express her djang (ancestral creation stories). In 2019 she travelled to Paris to launch the touring exhibition, Jarracharra ( Dry Season Wind) of which her work featured. In 2022 she travelled to LA where her work was exhibited with  Aboriginal Screen-Printed Textiles from Australia’s Top End at Fowler Museum, UCLA.

In  January 2023 Marawarr was invited by the Australian Consul- General, Kolkata to explore the textile region of West Bengal as a guest of honour. She participated in a 10 day tour of the region sharing  knowledge with other women’s groups including the Bridging Culture and Art Foundation Kantha studio in Tushkhali, Sundarbans; the Sadaf India Studio and the Navajeevan Co-operative Society in Jajpur, Odisha.

As well as her textile designs with Bábbarra Women’s Centre, Marawarr is an established bark painter with Maningrida Arts & Crafts and she works for the Maningrida Night Patrol, a community safety service.

‘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

'I saw them old people, doing only lino with bush dye, no screen printing.  I was eighteen [years old]. I’m 60 now [...] 40 years.
I was just watching my mum, she would weave baskets. And also I saw my grandfather painting, ma [(‘ma’ is an interjection meaning ‘okay’ or ‘time to act’ depending on context)] .  One day I learned from my grandfather. I love printing and linocuts – printing my designs on textiles.' Janet Marawarr for Artlink 2023

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