Maningrida Arts & Culture

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Wak Wak

This painting depicts a sacred site at ‘Kurrurldul’, an outstation south of Maningrida.

The ‘rarrk’, or abstract crosshatching, on this work represents the design for the crow totem ancestor called ‘Djimarr’. Today this being exists in the form of a rock, which is permanently submerged at the bottom of Kurrurldul Creek. The ‘Djimarr’ rock in the stream at Kurrurldul is said to move around and call out in a soft hooting tone at night. Both the stone itself and the area around it are considered sacred.

The imagery represents the rock mentioned above at the bottom of Kurrurldul creek, which is the final transmutation of the dreaming ancestor ‘Djimarr’. Finally, the pattern used here is also the crow design used in the sacred ‘Mardayin’ ceremony, which is a large regional patri-moiety ceremony now rarely conducted in central and eastern Arnhem Land.

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Djamo (dog)

The djamo (dog) holds special mythological as well as practical significance for people of Central Arnhem land, particularly women. The men used to go hunting with a spear and the women with a dog. If the men didn’t catch a kangaroo, the women would catch a goanna. If neither caught anything, then they could catch fish. If there was neither kangaroo nor goanna, then they would eat sugarbag. This is how it was long ago – sugarbag, lily root, yam, goanna, sand goanna, fish and more were part of the regular diet. “Don’t forget that long ago we didn’t know European food, we knew bush food. We used to grow from bush food.” Rembarrnga women have literally and metaphorically brought together strands from their country and the mythology of their heritage to produce three dimensional fibre creatures filled with mystical significance. Dog, mermaid, rainbow serpent, blue tongue and fish multiplication spirits: each creature plays an important role in the clan’s cultural landscape. Materials for this camp dog comes from the clan estate. Dayarr (pandanus) and rulk (grass) are the twines used for the creature’s bodies. Warlppurrunggu (bush turkey) and nganarrngh (black cockatoo) feathers provide bulkkan-na (hair). Marnarr (red), gamununggu (white), garlba (yellow) ochres and roerroe (black) ashes are then carefully mixed and applied for colour. The use of local materials provides an integral link between the mythological nature of the creatures, which inhabit the country and their physical form.

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Djamo (dog)

The djamo (dog) holds special mythological as well as practical significance for people of Central Arnhem land, particularly women. The men used to go hunting with a spear and the women with a dog. If the men didn’t catch a kangaroo, the women would catch a goanna. If neither caught anything, then they could catch fish. If there was neither kangaroo nor goanna, then they would eat sugarbag. This is how it was long ago – sugarbag, lily root, yam, goanna, sand goanna, fish and more were part of the regular diet. “Don’t forget that long ago we didn’t know European food, we knew bush food. We used to grow from bush food.” Rembarrnga women have literally and metaphorically brought together strands from their country and the mythology of their heritage to produce three dimensional fibre creatures filled with mystical significance. Dog, mermaid, rainbow serpent, blue tongue and fish multiplication spirits: each creature plays an important role in the clan’s cultural landscape. Materials for this camp dog comes from the clan estate. Dayarr (pandanus) and rulk (grass) are the twines used for the creature’s bodies. Warlppurrunggu (bush turkey) and nganarrngh (black cockatoo) feathers provide bulkkan-na (hair). Marnarr (red), gamununggu (white), garlba (yellow) ochres and roerroe (black) ashes are then carefully mixed and applied for colour. The use of local materials provides an integral link between the mythological nature of the creatures, which inhabit the country and their physical form.

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Yok (Bandicoot)

The ancestral site for yok (bandicoot) is a hill called kordeme near Buluhkaduru outstation. It is a restricted place. People used to hunt yok regularly, however they are rarely seen anymore. Lena Yarinkura explains that in the past djungkay (cultural managers) would perform rituals at the site, calling out all different kured (country): Korlobidahdah, Mankorlod, Buluhkaduru, Ankadbarrbirri, Malyarngak, Ramingining, Ji-balbal, Ji-be – na. Baby yok would then spread throughout these areas. However, today there are fewer yok as djungkay have not been able to perform these rituals as often. Yok also has a powerful inside essence, mardayin, but this work is an ‘out – side’, public story.

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Yawkyawk

Yawkyawk is a word in the Kunwinjku/Kunwok language of Western Arnhem Land meaning ‘young woman’ and ‘young woman spirit being’. The different groups of Kunwinjku people (one of the Eastern dialect groups call themselves Kuninjku) each have Yawkyawk mythologies, which relate to specific locations in clan estates. These mythologies are represented in bark paintings and sculptures of Yawkyawk beings. There are also a few examples of rock art images of these beings.
The female water spirits Yawkyawk or Ngalkunburriyaymi are perhaps the most enigmatic of mythological themes. Sometimes compared to the European notion of mermaids, they exist as spiritual beings living in freshwater streams and rock pools, particularly those in the stone country. The spirit Yawkyawk is usually described and depicted with the tail of a fish. Thus the Kuninjku people sometimes call them ngalberddjenj which literally means ‘the young woman who has a tail like a fish’. They have long hair, which is associated with trailing blooms of green algae (called man-bak in Kuninjku). At times they leave their aquatic homes to walk about on dry land, particularly at night.
Aboriginal people believe that in the beginning most animals were humans. During the time of the creation of landscapes and plants and animals, these ancestral heroes in human form transmutated into their animal forms via a series of various significant events now recorded as oral mythologies. The creation ancestor Yawkyawk travelled the country in human form and changed into the form of Ngalkunburriyaymi as a result of various ancestral adventures. Today the Kuninjku believe that Ngalkunburriyaymi are alive and well and living in freshwater sites in a number of sacred locations.
Some features of a respective country are equated with body parts of Yawkyawk. For example a bend in a river or creek may be said to be ‘the tail of the Yawkyawk, a billabong may be ‘the head of the Yawkyawk and so on. Thus different groups can be linked together by means of a shared mythology featured in the landscape, which crosscuts clan and language group boundaries.

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Mat

Mats can vary greatly. Artists commonly use a mix of naturally dyed and undyed fibre to create a striking variation of coloured bands. Some artists also incorporate different types of looping to produce different patterns and textured finishes. Each type of mat, fibre bag, basket and dilly bag has its own name in the various languages spoken in the Maningrida region.

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Mat

Mats can vary greatly. Artists commonly use a mix of naturally dyed and undyed fibre to create a striking variation of coloured bands. Some artists also incorporate different types of looping to produce different patterns and textured finishes. Each type of mat, fibre bag, basket and dilly bag has its own name in the various languages spoken in the Maningrida region.

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Mat

Mats can vary greatly. Artists commonly use a mix of naturally dyed and undyed fibre to create a striking variation of coloured bands. Some artists also incorporate different types of looping to produce different patterns and textured finishes. Each type of mat, fibre bag, basket and dilly bag has its own name in the various languages spoken in the Maningrida region.

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Bark Painting

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 told to the clan when holed up in the shelter for long periods in the wet season.

Bark paintings with deep cultural and ritual significance still feature in the Aboriginal sacred ceremonies of northern Australia and they, along with some coastal inhabitants are the only indigenous Aborigines still making traditional bark paintings.

The process of making a bark painting begins with choosing a suitable stringybark eucalyptus tree, preferably in the wet season when the sap is rising and the bark is fairly supple and easy to grip. After finding a section of bark that is devoid of knots and termite damage, cuts are made top and bottom and after some encouragement by tugging and prying, a hollow open cylinder of bark is removed. The bark sheet is trimmed and a fire made ready, over which the bark will be cured to drive out any moisture. The bark is then flattened to the ground with feet and then held down with heavy weights to ensure that it doesn’t curl or warp.

The Aboriginal bark painters of Arnhem Land adhere to four basic pigments – red, black, white and yellow. The reds and yellows come from ochres, crushed and powdered rocks. White comes from pipeclay and black generally comes from charcoal. Sometimes natural fixatives are mixed in to bind the pigments and which includes wax, yolk of eggs, resins and the sap of orchid plants. The paint can then be applied to the bark with perhaps a rarrk design by using a wood comb, or with brushes made from human hair or even feathers.

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Burlupurr – large dillybag

Burlupurr, or dilly bag, is a large woven collecting basket. These large bags are often made from the vine ‘Malasia scandens’, a strong pliable plant which grows along the floor and into the canopy of monsoon vine thickets. The bags are used to collect any kind of large numbers of heavy foods such as fish caught in conical fish traps or large collections of yams.

They can also be made from Pandanus spiralis, a plant which grows in many areas of Arnhem Land. These dilly bags are a tightly woven collecting basket, very finely made. These dilly bags are often used to collect sugarbag, the native honey 

As well as being of practical use, dilly bags are also of religious significance to Arnhem Land people. Dilly bags are said to be totemic objects and associated with particular sites in the landscape.