Man-ngalinj (bush potato) Man-ngalinj is a root vegetable often described as ‘bush potato’. It’s duwa, the artist’s moiety. It has a bulbous root and a long thin vine with small flowers that grows across the ground or up the trunks of nearby trees. Large crops can be found near the Read more…
Kun-madj – large dillybag vine Kun-madj, 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 Read more…
Djenj (Fish) Bark paintings have a long cultural tradition, believed to extend back many thousands of years. In northern Australia, the walls of bark shelters in the Kimberley and Arnhem Land may well have been painted to convey and illustrate stories in the same way that rock shelters were. Bark painters in the Maningrida Read more…
Ngalbenbe (Sun) Bark paintings have a long cultural tradition, believed to extend back many thousands of years. In northern Australia, the walls of bark shelters in the Kimberley and Arnhem Land may well have been painted to convey and illustrate stories in the same way that rock shelters were. Bark painters in the Maningrida Read more…
Dirdbim (Moon Dreaming) The images in this painting refer to a site in the clan estate of the artist, at a place called Dirdbim which literally means ‘image of the moon’. The site is a large, unusually round hole in sandstone, residual on the plain not far from the Mann Read more…
Dilly Bag Kun-madj, 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 Read more…
Barnda – long neck turtle In the mythology or dreaming history of the Ganalbingu and Gurrgurrdjunggu peoples, two sisters who were the human forms of barnda ‘the Long-neck Turtle’ (Chelodina rugosa) came travelling a long distance from the east towards Ganalbingu country in Central Arnhem Land. They travelled through Martay country arriving at Read more…
Yarrpanj (Honeybees) The artist has depicted the native honeybees and the honey they produce. Wild honey, called ‘woma’ in Burarra language, is produced by a number of species of native sting less honeybees of the [Genus Trigona]. Some make their hives in trees, some in the ground, especially in the Read more…
Morning Star Pole The ceremony known throughout Arnhem Land generically as Marradjiri is a ceremony of diplomacy given by one group to another to establish good relations and to strengthen kinship (for example by marriage) and economic ties (for example the sharing of clan estate resources). The central object in Read more…