Waŋupini (clouds) is the same story as my father taught me about the sunset. The sun is going down. The sunset on the clouds is like the red sails of the Makassan's ships leaving at the end of the season. We cry because the Makassans are leaving.

The mokuy (spirit) is dancing and leaving - the body is dead and the sprit is going to Balambala. This is Yirritja bäpurru (ceremony), the same as my Grandfather, Yaŋgarriny - this is his manikay (song):

The sun will rise again. The Makassans will come back. And the spirit will return. My father, who passed away, taught me this story. He taught me how to paint the story of Waŋupini.

 

DETAILS

• Paper: Hahnemuhle
• Dimensions: 69cm x 49cm (paper size), 50 x 32.5cm (image size)
• Cat No. 9169-22-12/40

ARTIST

Bulthirrirri (b. 1981) is an emerging artist and the daughter (by Yolngu law) of great painter and sculpter Nawurapu Wunuŋmurra (dec). Under the guidance of her father (recently deceased) Bulthirrirri is following and maintaining her families rich artistic heritage through her own hand.

Bulthirrirri is also the granddaughter of Yaŋgarriny, great Dhaḻwaŋu clan artist and leader who was a painter of the Yirrkala Church Panels and winner of the best bark prize in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander art awards in 1997. Balthirrirri has assisted other artists at the Dhaḻwaŋu homeland of Gåṉgaṉ and began making artworks on her own in late 2007. Since then she has explored numerous innovative styles of her own devise. In 2008-9 she was elected to the management committee of the art centre. Following the death of her father Nawurapu she assumed responsibility for the creation of art in his themes.

ART CENTRE

Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre is the Indigenous community controlled art centre of Northeast Arnhem Land. Located in Yirrkala, a small Aboriginal community on the northeastern tip of the Top End of the Northern Territory, approximately 700km east of Darwin. The primarily Yolŋu (Aboriginal) staff of around twenty services Yirrkala and the approximately twenty-five homeland centres in the radius of 200km.

Today Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre now consists of two divisions; the Yirrkala Art Centre which represents Yolŋu artists exhibiting and selling contemporary art and The Mulka Project which acts as a digital production studio and archiving centre incorporating the museum.

Baratjala is a Madarrpa clan estate adjacent to Cape Shield where the artist camped with her father and his many wives as a young girl. It is of the essence of Madarrpa but does not hold the high order sites that Yathikpa does. The artist lived nomadically as part of a clan group with a flotilla of canoes between Groote Eyelandt and the mainland.

Her father’s name was Mundukul (Lightning Snake) and this is also the name of the serpent (also known as Water Python, Burrut’tji or Liasis Fuscus), which lives deep beneath the sea here. These are cyclonic, crocodile infested waters with huge tides and ripping currents and she is part of them.

This print shows the rocks set in deep water between the electric ‘curse’ that the snake spits into the sky in the form of lightning, and the spray of the sea trying to shift the immovable rock foundation of the Madarrpa. Also depicted are duŋgurŋaniny, barnacles that grow on the rock. Yurr’yunna is the word used to describe the rough waves overtopping the rock and the spray flying into the sky.

She has reduced the Law to its elements unclothed in sacred design. Her identity cannot be separated from her art and so although she disavows any sacred intent the echo of miny’tji persists.

~ text provided by Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre

DETAILS

• Collagraph, mounted on foam core, ready for framing
• Dimensions: 86.7 x 58cm
• Cat No. 4231-23-21/60

ARTIST

• Homeland: Bäniyala
• Clan: Madarrpa, Yithuwa group
• Moiety: Yirritja

Mrs N. Marawili (dec) is the daughter of the Maḏarrpa warrior Mundukuḻ (lightning snake) and a Gälpu woman Buḻuŋguwuy. She was a wife of Djapu statesman Djutjadjutja Munuŋgurr (deceased) who won best bark painting at the National Aboriginal Art Awards 1997, in which she ably assisted.

She was the mother of four sons before birthing her two daughters, Marrnyula and Rerrkirrwaŋa (both artists – Rerrkirrwaŋa won best bark in Telstra 2009). She is a highly respected senior in her community, knowledgeable in two educational systems and practitioner in the bush and also institutions. She is a prolific producer of art, her work includes bark paintings, ḻarrakitj, carvings, and limited edition prints. Many of the works attributed to her husband Djutadjuta were crosshatched herself as part of teaching her family the required skills. She most often paints her husband’s Djapu clan designs, the Gälpu clan designs of her mother, or that of her own clan the Maḏarrpa.

ART CENTRE

Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre is the Indigenous community controlled art centre of Northeast Arnhem Land. Located in Yirrkala, a small Aboriginal community on the northeastern tip of the Top End of the Northern Territory, approximately 700km east of Darwin. The primarily Yolŋu (Aboriginal) staff of around twenty services Yirrkala and the approximately twenty-five homeland centres in the radius of 200km.

In the 1960’s, Narritjin Maymuru set up his own beachfront gallery from which he sold art that now graces many major museums and private collections. He is counted among the art centre’s main inspirations and founders, and his picture hangs in the museum. His vision of Yolŋu-owned business to sell Yolŋu art that started with a shelter on a beach has now grown into a thriving business that exhibits and sells globally.

Today Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre consists of two divisions; the Yirrkala Art Centre which represents Yolŋu artists exhibiting and selling contemporary art and The Mulka Project which acts as a digital production studio and archiving centre incorporating the museum.

This Wandjina is called the rainmaker. Two lightning spirits in a cave are waiting for the clouds to gather up, so he can make the rain and lightning. Where you see a lot of Wandjinas they represent the laws of trees, rivers, rocks, bush fruit, animals and all of creation. The Wandjinas give the law on how we have to treat and use these creations. These customs are carried on today. The Wandjina spirits are highly respected by the Worrora, Ngarinyin and Wunumbul people who live at Mowanjum and up the Gibb River Road to Kalumburru in the North West Kimberley region of Western Australia.

DETAILS

• Acrylic on canvas
• Dimensions: 60 x 80cm
• Cat No. 24-0379

ARTIST

As well as having two major Kimberley painters (now deceased) as grandparents – Nyunkuny Paddy Bedford on her father’s side and Jack Dale Mengenen on her mother’s, Petrina already has established herself as a dedicated artist in her own right. Remarkably, she first exhibited paintings at a commercial gallery in Perth at age twelve, when three of her canvases were hung alongside the work of her maternal grandfather. The oldest of seven girls, Petrina has Gija affiliations on her father’s side and Ngarinyin on her mother’s and lives at Imintji community, 230 km east of Derby along the Gibb River Road. She was exceptionally close to her maternal grandfather, who passed away two years ago. He first encouraged her to paint as a young girl; “painting makes me sad because I think about him, I miss him a lot. But it also makes me feel close to him. I think he might be proud of me now”. She was clearly greatly influenced by her grandfather who, she says, took a special interest in her. At lunch, she managed to completely distract us from eating with her soŌly spoken yet highly expressive renditions of stories from Ngarinyin country. Petrina uses her own style when painting, but the subjects she turns to are similar to her grandfather’s; Wanjina and classical stories relevant to her family. She loves to experiment with paƩern, very evident in her boab nut carving, a technique at which she excels. Her painting style is looser than her carving in which her mark making, when using just a sharp pen knife, can be exceptionally detailed and precise. Text from, 'Mowanjum Daytrip,' August 2015, by Philippa Jahn, Desert River Sea, Art Gallery of WA

ART CENTRE

The Mowanjum Aboriginal Art and Culture Centre is a creative hub for the Worrorra, Ngarinyin and Wunumbal tribes, who make up the Mowanjum community outside Derby, Western Australia. These three language groups are united by their belief in the Wandjina as a sacred spiritual force and the creators of the land. They are the custodians of Wandjina law and iconography. The centre hosts exhibitions, workshops and community projects, as well as the annual Mowanjum Festival, one of Australia's longest running indigenous cultural festivals.

Big rain coming. All the pink galahs in the tree. Stopping to get out of the rain. Dogs on the hill looking at the rain coming.

DETAILS

• Painting on paper, framed by Don Whyte
• Dimensions: 25.5cm x 33.7cm (unframed), 44cm x 36.5cm (framed)
• Cat No. 13505-24

ARTIST

Grace Kemarre Robinya is a celebrated artists from Tangentyere Artists, based in Mparntwe/Alice Springs. Robinya was born and raised in Ntaria (Hermannsburg), her father was a Rubuntja from Mt Hay (Urre), and her mother was an Ungkwanaka from Running Water (Irremangkere). 

An artist and seed jeweller of many years standing, Robinya hot-wires and paints traditional patterns onto gum nuts, which she threads together with the Innernte (Batwing Coral) and other seeds she collects during winter. Robinya’s paintings have always been highly considered and labour intensive, and generally distinguished by very neat multi-layered dot work, balanced colour schemes and symmetrical compositions.

More recently, Robinya’s figurative paintings, often near miniatures, detail important locations and events in her life: her childhood at Hermannsburg Mission and surrounding Ntaria region, or visits to her beloved Irremangkere. She also records details of station life at Coniston and Napperby Stations, where she and her husband worked as a domestic, and ringer respectively, while raising their family.

A frequent return visitor to Laramba Aboriginal Community now established on Napperby Station, Robinya also documents exciting football and softball carnivals in which her grandsons and granddaughters feature, playing for the winning Anmatyerr teams. These and other works detail life in the remote Aboriginal communities in which Robinya has lived throughout her life. 

ART CENTRE

Established in 2005, Tangentyere Artists is an Aboriginal owned, not-for-profit enterprise for Town Camp Artists. When Tangentyere Artists began, Jukurrpa Artists, Warumpi and Sandover Arts (all art centres previously operating in Alice Springs) had closed. Irrkerlanyte Arts and Ngurratjuta Iltja Ntjarra were servicing a limited number of Town Camp families. Tangentyere Artists was established with the express aims of combatting the prevalence of carpetbaggers, providing professional and career development opportunities to artists and operating an industry best practice enterprise. 

Today, Tangentyere Artists is the central hub for arts activities across the Town Camps. This includes the internationally renowned Yarrenyty Arltere Artists, located at Larapinta Town Camp. We work to a studio, gallery and outreach program, supporting emerging and established artists. Tangentyere Artists also welcome Aboriginal artists visiting town from remote communities, offering an open and safe environment where people from across Central Australia can sit down together to create artworks and share artistic skills as well as stories.

Tangentyere Artists is committed to innovative, sustainable, fine art outcomes for Town Camp Artists. We are renowned for figurative paintings, diversity of mark making, rich colour palettes and embracing traditional and contemporary Aboriginal art making. Our practice includes short animations. Through their art, Town Camp artists communicate stories about their families, identity and everyday lives. Their contemporary art practice aims to show the everyday experience of Aboriginal people in Central Australia and through this work Tangentyere Artists have become part of the national conversation on reconciliation. 

Big rain coming. All the pink galahs in the tree. Stopping to get out of the rain. Dogs on the hill looking at the rain coming.

DETAILS

• Painting on paper, framed by Don Whyte
• Dimensions: 25.5cm x 33.7cm (unframed), 44cm x 36.5cm (framed)
• Cat No. 13507-24

ARTIST

Grace Kemarre Robinya is a celebrated artists from Tangentyere Artists, based in Mparntwe/Alice Springs. Robinya was born and raised in Ntaria (Hermannsburg), her father was a Rubuntja from Mt Hay (Urre), and her mother was an Ungkwanaka from Running Water (Irremangkere). 

An artist and seed jeweller of many years standing, Robinya hot-wires and paints traditional patterns onto gum nuts, which she threads together with the Innernte (Batwing Coral) and other seeds she collects during winter. Robinya’s paintings have always been highly considered and labour intensive, and generally distinguished by very neat multi-layered dot work, balanced colour schemes and symmetrical compositions.

More recently, Robinya’s figurative paintings, often near miniatures, detail important locations and events in her life: her childhood at Hermannsburg Mission and surrounding Ntaria region, or visits to her beloved Irremangkere. She also records details of station life at Coniston and Napperby Stations, where she and her husband worked as a domestic, and ringer respectively, while raising their family.

A frequent return visitor to Laramba Aboriginal Community now established on Napperby Station, Robinya also documents exciting football and softball carnivals in which her grandsons and granddaughters feature, playing for the winning Anmatyerr teams. These and other works detail life in the remote Aboriginal communities in which Robinya has lived throughout her life. 

ART CENTRE

Established in 2005, Tangentyere Artists is an Aboriginal owned, not-for-profit enterprise for Town Camp Artists. When Tangentyere Artists began, Jukurrpa Artists, Warumpi and Sandover Arts (all art centres previously operating in Alice Springs) had closed. Irrkerlanyte Arts and Ngurratjuta Iltja Ntjarra were servicing a limited number of Town Camp families. Tangentyere Artists was established with the express aims of combatting the prevalence of carpetbaggers, providing professional and career development opportunities to artists and operating an industry best practice enterprise. 

Today, Tangentyere Artists is the central hub for arts activities across the Town Camps. This includes the internationally renowned Yarrenyty Arltere Artists, located at Larapinta Town Camp. We work to a studio, gallery and outreach program, supporting emerging and established artists. Tangentyere Artists also welcome Aboriginal artists visiting town from remote communities, offering an open and safe environment where people from across Central Australia can sit down together to create artworks and share artistic skills as well as stories.

Tangentyere Artists is committed to innovative, sustainable, fine art outcomes for Town Camp Artists. We are renowned for figurative paintings, diversity of mark making, rich colour palettes and embracing traditional and contemporary Aboriginal art making. Our practice includes short animations. Through their art, Town Camp artists communicate stories about their families, identity and everyday lives. Their contemporary art practice aims to show the everyday experience of Aboriginal people in Central Australia and through this work Tangentyere Artists have become part of the national conversation on reconciliation. 

All the birds flying and enjoying the water after the big rain. Cloudy day.

DETAILS

• Painting on paper, framed by Don Whyte
• 44cm x 36.5cm (framed)
• Cat No. 13508-24

ARTIST

Grace Kemarre Robinya is a celebrated artists from Tangentyere Artists, based in Mparntwe/Alice Springs. Robinya was born and raised in Ntaria (Hermannsburg), her father was a Rubuntja from Mt Hay (Urre), and her mother was an Ungkwanaka from Running Water (Irremangkere). 

An artist and seed jeweller of many years standing, Robinya hot-wires and paints traditional patterns onto gum nuts, which she threads together with the Innernte (Batwing Coral) and other seeds she collects during winter. Robinya’s paintings have always been highly considered and labour intensive, and generally distinguished by very neat multi-layered dot work, balanced colour schemes and symmetrical compositions.

More recently, Robinya’s figurative paintings, often near miniatures, detail important locations and events in her life: her childhood at Hermannsburg Mission and surrounding Ntaria region, or visits to her beloved Irremangkere. She also records details of station life at Coniston and Napperby Stations, where she and her husband worked as a domestic, and ringer respectively, while raising their family.

A frequent return visitor to Laramba Aboriginal Community now established on Napperby Station, Robinya also documents exciting football and softball carnivals in which her grandsons and granddaughters feature, playing for the winning Anmatyerr teams. These and other works detail life in the remote Aboriginal communities in which Robinya has lived throughout her life. 

ART CENTRE

Established in 2005, Tangentyere Artists is an Aboriginal owned, not-for-profit enterprise for Town Camp Artists. When Tangentyere Artists began, Jukurrpa Artists, Warumpi and Sandover Arts (all art centres previously operating in Alice Springs) had closed. Irrkerlanyte Arts and Ngurratjuta Iltja Ntjarra were servicing a limited number of Town Camp families. Tangentyere Artists was established with the express aims of combatting the prevalence of carpetbaggers, providing professional and career development opportunities to artists and operating an industry best practice enterprise. 

Today, Tangentyere Artists is the central hub for arts activities across the Town Camps. This includes the internationally renowned Yarrenyty Arltere Artists, located at Larapinta Town Camp. We work to a studio, gallery and outreach program, supporting emerging and established artists. Tangentyere Artists also welcome Aboriginal artists visiting town from remote communities, offering an open and safe environment where people from across Central Australia can sit down together to create artworks and share artistic skills as well as stories.

Tangentyere Artists is committed to innovative, sustainable, fine art outcomes for Town Camp Artists. We are renowned for figurative paintings, diversity of mark making, rich colour palettes and embracing traditional and contemporary Aboriginal art making. Our practice includes short animations. Through their art, Town Camp artists communicate stories about their families, identity and everyday lives. Their contemporary art practice aims to show the everyday experience of Aboriginal people in Central Australia and through this work Tangentyere Artists have become part of the national conversation on reconciliation. 

Namarrkon is the Lightning Man, the source of the fierce tropical storms in Western Arnhem Land during the big wet. Namarrkon’s body is shaped like a praying-mantis. He makes lightning flashes with lightning rods that go around his body from his ears to his genitals.

In this painting Namarrkon’s power to light up the sky is expressed by the wild illuminated face of the figure, energetic hatching, arched elbow and flexed hands. He is often depicted with stone axes attached to his knees and elbows.

Namarrkon is honoured in song and dance during ceremonies, so that he remains content and does not alter the balance of the seasons.

DETAILS

• Dimensions: 80cm x 36cm
• Cat No. 844-24

ARTIST

Timothy was born in Mudginbardi (Mudginberri) Outstation, growing up between Mudginbardi and Jabiru attending school. Tim grew up learning to paint from his brother in law, Joshua Bangarr and now passes his knowledge on to his son Amos Djandjomerr.

ART CENTRE

Marrawuddi Arts and Culture is a beautiful Community Arts Centre located in the repurposed Jabiru Bakery in the heart of the World Heritage Listed Kakadu National Park. The stunningly renovated building, which welcomes dozens of visitors daily, features a vibrant working space for artists use as well as a beautiful exhibition area and delicious coffee. Tourists are encouraged to spend time with artists and learn about the beautiful artworks available for purchase. The quality of artworks for sale at Marrawuddi is exceptional and all stock is created by artists living in or around the Kakadu and wider West Arnhem region. The strength of the ancient, evolving and continuing Kakadu and West Arnhem culture is clear at Marrawuddi. Staff support artists through regular bush trips collecting traditional materials as well as through workshops for new skill development such as screen-printing. Marrawuddi is seen by many as a flagship signalling Jabiru’s positive future as the town undergoes its Mirarr-led transition from mining town to regional service hub and tourism centre. Marrawuddi is owned and governed by Mirarr Traditional Owners through their organisation Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation and all proceeds from Marrawuddi are used in Gundjeihmi’s community work.

Namarden or Namarrkon are Eastern Kunwinjku are names for the Lightning Spirit. This entity, which is responsible for lightning and thunder, is painted on both stone and bark in a form described as ‘like a grasshopper’.

Namarrkon is said to have made Ngaldjurr (Leichardt’s or the spectacular grasshopper). The species emerges, mates and is most active and visible in the season known as Kunemeleng, between October and December when there are intense electrical storms. Ngaldjurr is then said to be ‘looking for’ Namarrkon.

Namarrkon makes lightning and thunder by striking out with kurlbburru (stone axes) which protrude from its joints. Today, the Kuninjku will not leave axes lying out in the open during an electrical storm as the axes act as an attraction to the destructive force of Namarrkon. The lines emanating from Namarrkon’s head are said to be mardno or lightning bolts of power.

DETAILS

• Stringybark (Eucalyptus Tetradonta) with Ochre Pigment and PVA Fixative
• Dimensions: 125 x 60cm
• Cat No. 566-24

ARTIST

Kuninjku artist Paul Nabulumo is a painter and sculptor. He is the son of acclaimed artist, Mick Kubarkku (1925 – 2008), who was known for his painting of dirdbim (moon, sun and stars) and the associated site on his Kulmarru clan estate. Nabulumo learned under his guidance, watching him paint on rock surfaces and bark paintings as a young man.

The artist continues to paint the iconic imagery handed down from his father, including Ngalyod (Rainbow Serpent), mimih (rock country spirit), yawkyawk (female water spirits), Kubumi (waterholes) and djulng (Ancestral bones). Nabulumo maintains strong connection to his heritage, living and working at Yikkarrakkal Outstation which sits adjacent to the dirdbim and kubumi djang (Ancestral) sites . However, he has developed his own distinct aesthetic, characterised by striking combinations of fine and elegant rarrk, figurative elements and bold negative space. Nabulumo began exhibiting in 2000, participating in his first group show at Aboriginal Art & Pacific (Sydney). 

ART CENTRE

Maningrida Arts & Culture is a pre-eminent site of contemporary cultural expression and art-making, abundant with highly collectable art and emerging talent. Through their homelands resource organisation, Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation, artists turned an art trade that began just over 50 years ago into a multi-million dollar arts and cultural enterprise.

Maningrida Arts & Culture supported hundreds of artists on their homelands, more than 20 artworkers, held 20 exhibitions annually, won prestigious awards, and enjoyed the international fame and success that the boom in the Aboriginal art market of the 1990s and 2000s enabled.

Acclaimed senior artists including John Mawurndjul, brothers Owen Yalandja and Crusoe Kurddal, Bob Burruwal, Lena Yarinkura and Laurie Marbaduk continue to expand their mediums and narratives. Artists such as Paul Nabulumo, Samson Bonson, Anniebelle Marrngamarrnga, Samuel Namundja, Kay Lindjuwanga and Fiona Jin-majinggal have emerged to become a formidable force in the national and international landscape. They sit alongside the leading proponents of a fibre sculpture movement. Frewa Bardaluna, Helen Stewart, Vera Cameron, Lorna Jin-gubarrangunyja, Freda Wayartja Ali, Bonnie Burarn.garra and Doreen Jinggarrabarra are a group of mostly female artists who reinterpret functional forms using natural fibres to create highly sought-after pieces across the fine art and interior design sectors.