7
Death and L i fe :
rakuny ga walnga:
Contemporary Arnhem Land Art
Diane Moon
The cycle of death that engenders new life — a
belief integral to the Aboriginal people of Arnhem
Land — is the focus of ‘Death and Life: rakuny ga
walnga’, the Gallery’s first Collection-based exhibition
of contemporary art from Arnhem Land. Featured
are bark paintings, memorial poles, sculptures
and weavings reflecting languages, moieties, clan
affiliations and connections with country, from
the saltwater communities around Yirrkala in the
east, across savanna and swamplands, to the rocky
escarpment terrain near Maningrida in the west. The
actions of the great ancestral creator spirits who
brought light and life to the featureless land are central
to many of the works.
BODY PAINTING
The patterning and imagery on these barks and
poles have their origins in body painting. In annual
ceremonies, elaborate clan designs are painted
in natural pigments onto boys’ bodies during
their initiation into manhood. These designs are
unequivocally tied to their identity throughout life, as
well as after death, through the embellishment of ritual
sculptures, coffins and hollow log memorial poles.
Customary laws determining both land custodianship
— where people can walk or hunt — and relationships —
who people are related to and how those relationships
are lived — are embodied in the designs. However, with
the development of the commercial art market in the
Mickey Durrng
Liyagawumirr people
NT 1940–2006
Lorrkon (Burial poles)
2006
Wood with natural pigments
210 x 25cm (diam.) (irreg.); 297 x 21cm (diam.) (irreg.)
Acc. 2006.092–093
Purchased 2006
© Mickey Durrng. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney, 2013
1960s, Aboriginal artists began to apply these designs
to prepared sheets of bark and to burial poles sold as
contemporary sculpture.
In Mickey Durrng’s (1940–2006) bark painting
Garriyak
body painting
2006, stark minimalist designs represent
djirrididi, important body paintings associated with
the Djang’kawu ancestors as they travelled from the
east through the artist’s clan lands south of Galiwin’ku
(Elcho Island). The bold cross pattern can represent a
spreading yam vine symbolising the rays of the rising
sun, the triangles radiating from interconnected circles
are landmark fresh waterholes, while the bold stripes
can express many things — the darting azure kingfisher,
shimmering sunrays, the slanted shadows from a
setting sun, or the stripes on Djang’kawu bodies.
Similarly, John Bulunbulun’s
Body design
– wind 2002
embodies multiple references. A small bark painting
tied to the scale of a man’s torso, the pattern reflects
exactly how it would be painted on the chest. Its
triangular shapes and vertical lines of dots stand for
lunggurruma, the north-west wind and the clouds
and weather patterns that signal centuries of contact
between the Yolngu and Macassan traders from
Sulawesi in Indonesia. The colours used — galatjal
(black), gamanungku (white), miku (red) and buthalak
(yellow) — indicate the artist is of the Yirritja moiety
and this is his special design.
