Maningrida Arts & Culture

Djulng The bones are Djulng at Naborlkabotme. Djulng refers to the bones of dead Ancestral beings. There are some in a hole in the rock at this place.

Jayma (Queenfish) Aboriginal bark paintings have a long cultural tradition, believed to extend back many thousands of years.In northern Australia, paintings on bark shelters in the Kimberley and Arnhem Land were stylistically similar to rock shelter paintings. The Aboriginal bark paintings were used to convey and illustrate stories which were Read more…

Warrawarra Clan This clan consists of Martay Burarra speakers and relates to the country called Gamurra Gu-yurra which lies between Maningrida and Ramingining in central Arnhem Land.Thoes totemic animals are ‘gorraporda’ or darter, here depicted with it’s eggs in the nest. Further there is a saltwater crocodile ‘marrchila’, slatwater catfish Read more…

Ngalkodjek Yawkyawk This artwork depicts the Ngalkodjek Yawkyawk of Barrihdjowkkeng country. “This story is very old. That old man [my father Crusoe Kuningbal] when he was alive, told that story to me, to all of us. He told us about the yawkyawk (mermaid) spirit women called Ngalkodjek who lives in the Read more…

Mimih Spirit The mimih spirit exists in a realm that runs parallel to and mirrors many facets of human life, also demonstrating the deep sense of time and place understood by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Such spirits feature importantly in relation to Aboriginal spirituality, cosmology, social and moral Read more…

Waterholes (Kubumi) Kubumi is a sacred site on the Mann River. This is its story, as told by a ritual manager of the site, Lulu Laradjbi, with the authority of her husband Mick Kubarkku, a land owner of that country. Ngalyod the Rainbow Serpent pierced the rock at a place called Read more…

Djulng The bones are Djulng at Naborlkabotme. Djulng refers to the bones of dead Ancestral beings. There are some in a hole in the rock at this place.

Lambalk (Sugar Glider)

Mandjabugudukguduk  Manjabukudukkurduk refers to a deep black waterhole that has deep spiritual significance as the site where Kuninjku people’s spirit comes into being and returns in death. The artists explains, “When we die our spirit will go back there… so this spirit will live forever, like we are still alive, Read more…

Mandjabu Kuninjku people traditionally make two sorts of conical fish traps. One called Mandjabu made from milil a vine. And another smaller one called manyilk Mandjabu, made from the grass manylik. The milil conical fish trap is bigger and stronger and used in tidal reaches of creeks to catch large Read more…