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Jabiru
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Jabiru
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Ngalkunburriyaymi & Modjarrkki
Kuninjku people call mermaids yawkyawk but in my language, Kune we call them Ngalkunburriyaymi (pronuced Ngaal gun borro yay mee). The Ngalkunburriyaymi depicted in my artworks is from a place called Marra-yii (sp?). There are too many Ngalkunburriyaymi living at this place. They are always there and have been there forever. We can go camping and fishing at this place. Marar-yii is a place in the river. They are freshwater. They are Duwa moiety. Same as the freshwater crocodile.
My mum told me her story. Ngalkunburriyaymi gave her a baby. Ngalkunburriyaymi came to her in a dream. They gave her my brother. In my mother’s dream she went fishing Marra-yii and Ngalkunburriyaymi came to her to tell her she was having a baby. She said to her I will give you a baby. In a couple of months, you will be pregnant.
Ngalkunburriyaymi eat fish and waterlilies.
Owen Yalandja is my cousin from my father’s side and Lulu is my grandmother also from my father’s side. They are from different outstations, but we are family. My Ngalkunburriyaymi story is connected to them but different.
I love my mother’s story and it is why I made a lino plate and I print it on different colour fabrics – silk, linen and cotton. I like using lots of different colours. I come from a family who have made artwork on bark and hollow logs using ochre. Black, yellow, red and white. But at Babbarra Designs we can use bright colours for our fabric.
Modjarrkki
Modjarrkki is the freshwater crocodile only eats little fish like barramundi and saratoga. He doesn’t eat big things like kangaroo.
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Ngalkunburriyaymi, Bini-murreko & Wayuk
Kuninjku people call mermaids yawkyawk but in my language, Kune we call them Ngalkunburriyaymi (pronuced Ngaal gun borro yay mee). The Ngalkunburriyaymi depicted in my artworks is from a place called Marra-yii (sp?). There are too many Ngalkunburriyaymi living at this place. They are always there and have been there forever. We can go camping and fishing at this place. Marar-yii is a place in the river. They are freshwater. They are Duwa moiety. Same as the freshwater crocodile.
My mum told me her story. Ngalkunburriyaymi gave her a baby. Ngalkunburriyaymi came to her in a dream. They gave her my brother. In my mother’s dream she went fishing Marra-yii and Ngalkunburriyaymi came to her to tell her she was having a baby. She said to her I will give you a baby. In a couple of months, you will be pregnant.
Ngalkunburriyaymi eat fish and waterlilies.
Owen Yalandja is my cousin from my father’s side and Lulu is my grandmother also from my father’s side. They are from different outstations, but we are family. My Ngalkunburriyaymi story is connected to them but different.
I love my mother’s story and it is why I made a lino plate and I print it on different colour fabrics – silk, linen and cotton. I like using lots of different colours. I come from a family who have made artwork on bark and hollow logs using ochre. Black, yellow, red and white. But at Babbarra Designs we can use bright colours for our fabric.
‘Bini-murreko means two brothers – big brother and little brother.
Two brothers were really strong leaders and good hunters, sharing animals with different tribes.
With those different tribe there were jealousy going on.
Little brother went walkabout and heard the different tribe was talking about his tribe.
They said ngarribin manre djed-djedme bokko
Meaning: will make spear for them
Ngarrbin danj-bun, ngarrbinbun
Meaning: will spear them kill them
little brother turn around went back tell his brother
Namurre bokko kadi marne djed-djedme Karre wonens, kardi-djal danjbun
Meaning: they making spear for us, they gonna spear us
Couple of months they saw different tribe
They changed their attitude
They been bringing lots of animals to them and start asking for women
And that tribe realise that’s how those brothers died.
They kill them
This Why? They got jealous because two brothers was a good hunter.
This story written on the rock art and it stays forever.’
Wayuk – waterlillies
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Jin-merduwa (Mermaid) from Gupanga
My niece Stephanie is singing a song called Diyama and it is about Jin-merduwa. She is in the Ripple Effect Band. They are now famous in Maningrida and everywhere. Her great grandmother told her about the Jin-merduwa living at Gupanga. I heard the story before Stephanie. Now I hear her singing the story about that place. I am very proud of her. We have the same country. Our stories match. She is singing the story and I am making artwork about the story.
My lino print shows the Jin-merduwa who live at Gupanga. Gupanga is located at the mouth of the Blyth River. It is a saltwater place. There must be more than one Jin-merduwa living there? They eat fish, shellfish and seaweed. Sometimes they travel to the end of the river to find food in the ocean, but they don’t go far and always swim back to their home.
Gupanga is a beautiful place. The sand is golden, there are mangroves, and the water is cloudy. It is good hunting in that area. When we lived there, we got lots of barramundi, mudcrabs, shellfish, everything!
This is a bit of a dangerous story. I can’t say too much about this sacred place. The Rangers help to look after this place, but they also know they must be careful.
Kuninjku people call mermaids yawkyawk. Yawkyawk are also freshwater. In my language, Burarra we call them Jin-merduwa.
I love to make lino print fabric showing Jin-merduwa. I like using bright colours but sometimes I print using black and white.
A beautiful, one off, lino cut, hand printed deign by Elizabeth Wullunmingu depicting the story of Jin-merduwa. Sometimes she also includes her turtle print.
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Ngalkunburriyaymi, Modjarrkki & Namurre Boko
Kuninjku people call mermaids yawkyawk but in my language, Kune we call them Ngalkunburriyaymi (pronuced Ngaal gun borro yay mee). The Ngalkunburriyaymi depicted in my artworks is from a place called Marra-yii (sp?). There are too many Ngalkunburriyaymi living at this place. They are always there and have been there forever. We can go camping and fishing at this place. Marar-yii is a place in the river. They are freshwater. They are Duwa moiety. Same as the freshwater crocodile.
My mum told me her story. Ngalkunburriyaymi gave her a baby. Ngalkunburriyaymi came to her in a dream. They gave her my brother. In my mother’s dream she went fishing Marra-yii and Ngalkunburriyaymi came to her to tell her she was having a baby. She said to her I will give you a baby. In a couple of months, you will be pregnant.
Ngalkunburriyaymi eat fish and waterlilies.
Owen Yalandja is my cousin from my father’s side and Lulu is my grandmother also from my father’s side. They are from different outstations, but we are family. My Ngalkunburriyaymi story is connected to them but different.
I love my mother’s story and it is why I made a lino plate and I print it on different colour fabrics – silk, linen and cotton. I like using lots of different colours. I come from a family who have made artwork on bark and hollow logs using ochre. Black, yellow, red and white. But at Babbarra Designs we can use bright colours for our fabric.
Modjarrkki
Modjarrkki is the freshwater crocodile only eats little fish like barramundi and saratoga. He doesn’t eat big things like kangaroo.
Namurre Boko (Two Brother’s Story)
‘Bini-murreko means two brothers – big brother and little brother.
Two brothers were really strong leaders and good hunters, sharing animals with different tribes.
With those different tribe there were jealousy going on.
Little brother went walkabout and heard the different tribe was talking about his tribe.
They said ngarribin manre djed-djedme bokko
Meaning: will make spear for them
Ngarrbin danj-bun, ngarrbinbun
Meaning: will spear them kill them
little brother turn around went back tell his brother
Namurre bokko kadi marne djed-djedme Karre wonens, kardi-djal danjbun
Meaning: they making spear for us, they gonna spear us
Couple of months they saw different tribe
They changed their attitude
They been bringing lots of animals to them and start asking for women
And that tribe realise that’s how those brothers died.
They kill them
This Why? They got jealous because two brothers was a good hunter.
This story written on the rock art and it stays forever.’
This story was transcribed by Jay Jurrupula Rostron. Her lino designs illustrate the different scenes in this ancestral story. Jay is a meticulous artist with a fine lino carving technique and beautiful colour combinations that reflect the Arnhem Land environment and her homeland near Korlobididah.
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Ngalkunburriyaymi & Wayuk
Kuninjku people call mermaids yawkyawk but in my language, Kune we call them Ngalkunburriyaymi (pronuced Ngaal gun borro yay mee). The Ngalkunburriyaymi depicted in my artworks is from a place called Marra-yii (sp?). There are too many Ngalkunburriyaymi living at this place. They are always there and have been there forever. We can go camping and fishing at this place. Marar-yii is a place in the river. They are freshwater. They are Duwa moiety. Same as the freshwater crocodile.
My mum told me her story. Ngalkunburriyaymi gave her a baby. Ngalkunburriyaymi came to her in a dream. They gave her my brother. In my mother’s dream she went fishing Marra-yii and Ngalkunburriyaymi came to her to tell her she was having a baby. She said to her I will give you a baby. In a couple of months, you will be pregnant.
Ngalkunburriyaymi eat fish and waterlilies.
Owen Yalandja is my cousin from my father’s side and Lulu is my grandmother also from my father’s side. They are from different outstations, but we are family. My Ngalkunburriyaymi story is connected to them but different.
I love my mother’s story and it is why I made a lino plate and I print it on different colour fabrics – silk, linen and cotton. I like using lots of different colours. I come from a family who have made artwork on bark and hollow logs using ochre. Black, yellow, red and white. But at Babbarra Designs we can use bright colours for our fabric.
Wayuk (waterlily)
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Kulyakartu
Kulyakartu is a large area in the far north of the Martu homelands, near the Percival Lakes region of Western Australia’s Great Sandy Desert. Kulyakartu is mostly flat grass Country, and is known as a good hunting area. In particular, parnajarrpa (goanna), wild cats, and lunki (witchetty grub) are found in abundance here. In the wantajarra (wet season) the dry lakes in the region fill with water.
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Seasons
“My paintings are all about the seasons. The Country is always changing. One day you might see one kind of flower and the next day they are gone; they have given way to a new kind of flower.
I see the Country in a different way. In my paintings I am looking at the Country with a birds eye view, the way you see the land when you’re in a plane.”
– Derrick Butt
This work portrays an area of Derrick’s ngurra (home Country, camp) represented aerially. During the pujiman period, Martu would traverse very large distances annually in small family groups, moving seasonally from water source to water source, and hunting and gathering bush tucker as they went. At this time, one’s survival depended on their intimate knowledge of the location of resources; thus physical elements of Country, such as sources of kapi (water), tali (sandhills), different varieties of warta (trees, vegetation), ngarrini (camps), and jina (tracks) are typically recorded in paintings with the use of a system of iconographic forms universally shared across the desert.
An additional layer of meaning in the work relates to more intangible concepts as described by Derrick; life cycles based around kalyu (rain, water) and waru (fire).