• Artist: Obed Namirrkki
• 100cm x 39.5cm
• Acrylic on Bark
• Cat No. 2447-21

Binink (Aboriginal people of Kakadu and western Arnhem Land) say that the mimih bim (mimih rock art) was painted not by humans but by the mimih spirits in the ancestral past.

Mimih bim usually in red orche, depict elegant, graceful stick-like human figures in action: fighting, running dancing, leaping and hunting or preparing food and using fire. The mimih live in the nooks and crannies of the Stone Country, only appearing during the stillness of the night.

They are said to be so thin and frail that they can only emerge from their hiding places when there is no wind, otherwise their frail bones would be broken. The mimih not only created these lively self portraits, but are also the Dreaming ancestors who taight humans how to paint, hunt, dance and compose songs.

Mimih are like humas but they like in a different dimension. They were depicted as part of the chronological sequence that rock art specialists describe as 'the freshwater period'.

Mimih are trickster spirits who can be dangerous or troublesome to humans. Traditional stories describe how they can give humans a hard time -- kicking, slapping, wielding a racket-like object as a weapon or event sitting on people!

~ Text provided by Marrawuddi Arts & Culture