Komrdawh (Northern snake-necked turtle) Chelodina rugosa Komrdawh are a popular food source for Kunikjuku people of West Arnhem. They would be caught using a Mandjabu (Concial Fish Trap) in rivers and creeks as well as using spears or digging sticks in billabong and floodplain areas. Yoh kalawan la borlokko birringuyi Read more…
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 Read more…
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 Read more…
Mimih Spirit The mimih spirit exists in a realm that runs parallel to and mirrors many facets of human life, 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 tales Read more…
Bekka (File Snake) The Lorrkon or bone pole coffin ceremony was the final ceremony in a sequence of mortuary rituals celebrated by the people of Arnhem Land. This ceremony involves the placing of the deceased’s bones into a hollow log which was decorated with painted clan designs and ceremonially placed Read more…
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 Read more…
Kunkaninj (Digging Stick) Kunkaninj (digging stick) is used to dig for yams and for finding long-neck turtles, but is also an important Duwa moiety totemic ancestor. It shares the same songline as barlangu (shark) and wankurr (sacred Mardayin ceremonial dilly bag). Kunkarninj are the digging sticks that created the fresh water Read more…
Yawkyawk (Ngalkunburriyaymi) This is a depiction of Ngalkunburriyaymi or Yawkyawk, the fish-women spirit. Sometimes compared to the European notion of mermaids, they exist as spiritual beings living in freshwater streams, particularly those in the stone country. These water spirits are perhaps the most enigmatic, and are usually described and depicted with the tails of fish. Thus Read more…
Kunkurra (The Spiralling Wind) ‘Kunkurra’, the spiralling wind is associated with several sites in the Kardbam clan estate. On one level, this painting can be interpreted as a depiction of the kinds of mini-cyclones common during the wet season in Arnhem Land, where the artist lives. In this painting, Kunkurra Read more…
Kunkurra (The Spiralling Wind) ‘Kunkurra’, the spiralling wind is associated with several sites in the Kardbam clan estate. On one level, this painting can be interpreted as a depiction of the kinds of mini-cyclones common during the wet season in Arnhem Land, where the artist lives. In this painting, Kunkurra Read more…