Western Arnhem Land | National Museum of Australia

This region is dominated by the Arnhem Escarpment, a vast range of rocky hills home to thousands of rock art galleries, some more than 30,000 years old. The majority of rock paintings here are figurative and these have influenced the style of bark painting in the region.

Yirawala

Yirawala is one of the major artists in Australian art history. He played a leading role in promoting the acceptance of Aboriginal art as ‘art’ rather than simply ‘ethnographic material’.

Yirawala’s impetus to paint for the public stemmed from a need to reveal his culture to non-Indigenous Australians so that it could be understood and respected. He was a gifted painter of high ritual authority, which allowed him to innovate on the art traditions of the Kuninjku people. Among his main innovations are his exquisitely rendered variations on conventional rarrk (crosshatched) clan patterns.

Although Yirawala had an extensive repertoire of subjects at his command, the majority of his work is associated with the major regional ceremonies, especially the Mardayin, which involves both Duwa and Yirridjdja moities.

Themes represented in the paintings here include: Ngalyod the Rainbow Serpent, wearing a feather headdress to indicate its connection to ceremony; Lumaluma the Giant Ogre, whose limbs were cut off and transformed into ritual objects; Kandakidj the Antilopine Kangaroo associated with the Wubarr and Lorrkkon ceremonies; Namanjwarre the Estuarine Crocodile; and images of sorcery.

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. The painting is divided into three panels with the top panel depicting a crouching spirit figure with a round body, long neck, long digits and hair and a cross-hatched body. The central panel three spirit figures, the outer ones painted in red and teh central one in yellow. The lowest panel has vertical red stripes outlined in black and containing yellow dots. Between these are diagonal stripes of red and white crosshatching. - click to view larger image — *Spirit People*

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts three male Mimi figures with fringed, feather headdresses and body ornaments. There is a turtle on their right. Each of the figures is worked in white with red lines and black dots on the bodies. - click to view larger image — *Mimih and Turtle*

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts five female Mimi figures one of whom is giving birth to a baby. The figures are painted in brown and white on a white background. - click to view larger image — *Birth of a Mimih*

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts a coiled crocodile with its head in the centre of the painting. The crocodile is painted with crosshatched infill. The painting has an ochre yellow background. - click to view larger image — *Totemic Crocodile*

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts an echidna in x-ray style, with the organs painted in black with lines of coloured dots. The body is segmented also with lines of coloured dots and infilled with white, red and yellow crosshatching. The echidna is outlined with white spines and set against a red background. - click to view larger image — *Bambil (Echidna)*

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts a kangaroo facing to the right with a brown head and white and brown crosshatching and dot design. The lower edge of the bark is rounded. The painting has a white background. - click to view larger image — *Kandakidj the Antilopine Kangaroo*

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts two large turtles painted with white heads and crosshatched bodies. The larger turtle is facing to the right while the smaller inverted turtle faces left. The painting has a yellow background. - click to view larger image — *Two Long-Necked Turtles*

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts two figures with crosshatching on their bodies. The larger figure on the right has a black nose and large semi circle for a mouth. The smaller figure in the top left hand corner has white eyes painted on a red head. - click to view larger image — *Lumaluma the Giant Ogre*

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts a snake in a coiled position with its head in the centre. The snake is crosshatched in brown, cream, red and black rectangular shapes,which are outlined in black and white. The painting has a red background. - click to view larger image — *Ngalyod the Rainbow Serpent*

The school of Yirawala

The school of Yirawala developed as a natural outcome of artists sharing camps and outstations with members of their extended families. Such places contain artists’ studios that are out in the open and surrounded by the daily activities of the family – rather than being locked away in secrecy. The open-air studios provide opportunities for artists to work together and to influence each other. They are also where younger family members learn about art.

Marrkolidjban outstation, in the Liverpool River region, played an important role in the history of the development of the artists tutored by Yirawala. It was here that Yirawala and Curly Bardkadubbu, both members of the Born clan, lived and worked in the early 1970s.

Bardkadubbu learnt from Yirawala to paint on bark and, around the same time, Yirawala taught his own sister’s son, Peter Marralwanga, the intricacies of painting patterns of rarrk. Marralwanga in turn taught his nephew John Mawurndjul who, as a teenager, had been inspired by Yirawala.

Note the similarities in these artists’ renditions of Ngalyod the Rainbow Serpent and Namanjwarre the Estuarine Crocodile. In each case the sheer power of the creatures is expressed in the drawing of the figures as coiled springs, ready to snap and unleash their herculean powers.

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark and on wooden restrainers. It depicts a serpent spiralled in an anti-clockwise direction. The serpent has white pointed teeth and a black and brown line along its spine. Its body has stripes of hoizontal black and brown crosshatching. A small black human figure is at the mouth of the serpent. - click to view larger image — *Ngalyod the Rainbow Serpent* by Peter Marralwanga

A bark painting worked with ochres. It depicts a long U-shaped figure with a fish-like tail, a rounded head, circular eyes, pointed nose and a straight mouth. There is a smaller figure with arms and hands painted upside down beside the larger figure's head. Both figures are filled with crosshatching. The painting has a red background with the lower corners painted in black and yellow. - click to view larger image — *Yawkyawk* by Peter Marralwanga

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark and on wooden restrainers. It depicts a crocodile with its head turning to the left and its tail curled up to the right. The crocodile has a yellow, white and brown crosshatched design with white feet, tail, and lower jaw. The painting has a red background. - click to view larger image — *Namanjwarre the Estuarine Crocodile* by Curly Bardkadubbu

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark and on wooden restrainers. It depicts a coiled snake with its head in the top left hand corner.The snake is painted in brown, black and red crosshatching. In the upper section there are white leaves set against a red background. - click to view larger image — *Rainbow Serpent* by John Mawurndjul

Figures in landscape

Figures in the landscape is a genre of painting in the western European tradition that seeks to express the connection between people and their environment, and its influence on a person’s identity. The ancestral figures in bark paintings not only inhabit the country, they also created it; they metamorphosed into its features and they deposited their ancestral forces within the earth itself.

Chief among these creator beings is the Rainbow Serpent, commonly known as Ngalyod, who may appear in several guises. Ngalyod creates sacred sites by burrowing its way through the earth to emerge on the surface, where it encircles and swallows spirit beings. These may be taken into the ground or regurgitated as features of the landscape.

The Rainbow Serpent is sometimes drawn as a composite of several creatures, with the head of a crocodile or kangaroo, an emu’s crop and the tail of a fish. Ngalyod the Rainbow Serpent by Bardayal Nadjamerrek depicts Ngalyod beneath the surface of a billabong. Images of ‘seated’ beings indicate they are giving birth to particular sites.

The artists in this section all lived in and around the township of Oenpelli (Gunbalanya) in the 1960s and 1970s, when most of these paintings were made.

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark and with two wooden restrainers. It depicts a kangaroo head being speared by a small human figure. There is a row of hills with trees along the summit. The kangaroo and the hills are painted in straight and diagonal stripes.The painting has a brown background. - click to view larger image — *Hunter and Kangaroo* by Bob Balirrbalirr Dirdi

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark and on wooden restrainers. It depicts the head and shoulder of an animal crosshatched in brown, black and white, and segmented with white bands and with brown spots on a white upper chest. - click to view larger image — *Ngalyod the Rainbow Serpent* by Yuwunyuwun Marruwarr

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark and on wooden restrainers. It depicts a rainbow serpent painted in diagonal bands of red, cream and purple crosshatching. The serpent is wrapped around a tree which has a long white trunk and leafy branches. The painting has a brown background. - click to view larger image — *Ngalyod and the Sacred Tree* by Yuwunyuwun Marruwarr

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark and on wooden restrainers. It depicts a large serpent surrounding a female spirit. The spirit has broadly striped lower limbs and crosshatched upper legs and torso. The serpent has a black backbone with an internal red line with white dots. Its head and neck are painted in red white and black stripes. The painting has a red background. - click to view larger image — *Ngalyod and Ngalkunburriyaymi* by John Namerredje Guymala

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark and on wooden restrainers. It depicts two male figures, each with a spear and a woomera. The figures are painted in white with crosshatching, stripes and spots in black, brown and yellow. The painting has a brown background. - click to view larger image — *Namorrorddo Spirits* by John Namerredje Guymala

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark and on wooden restrainers. It depicts a seated female spirit figure with raised and bent legs and arms. There is a curved form around her head and she is seated on a rectangular shape The figure is painted in herringbone stripes of white on red ochre and with red lines with white dots. The painting has a black background. - click to view larger image — *Ngalkunburriyaymi Female Spirit* by John Namerredje Guymala

A bark painting worked in ochres on bark and on wooden restrainers. It depicts a spirit figure seated on a white tree stump. The spirit figure is painted with a white background and red ochre and charcoal crosshatching. There are four white diamond shapes on the body. - click to view larger image — *Dulklorrkenlorrken* by Bardayal Nadjamerrek

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark and with one wooden restrainer. It depicts the female rainbow serpent in white, with black sections on the lower section, fins and tail. There are three plants depicted above the serpent's back. The painting has a red background. - click to view larger image — *Ngalyod the Rainbow Serpent* by Bardayal Nadjamerrek

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark and on wooden restrainers. It depicts a male and female possum and s sugar glider feeding on the fruits and flowers of a tree.The figures have been painted as pipeclay silhouettes on a charcoal background and with red crosshatching.The large possum shows x-ray features of heart, lungs and backbone as well as muscle structure. The painting has a black background. - click to view larger image — *Dukula and Lambalk, Possums and Sugar Glider Feeding* by Bardayal Nadjamerrek

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark and on wooden restrainers. It depicts the legs and body of a wallaby with two dingores and two maggots. The dingoes have been painted as pipeclay silhouettes and infilled with red ochre crosshatching and x-ray detail showing their backbones.The maggots are painted in a thin wash of yellow ochre and outlined in pipeclay. The wallaby shows faint infilling with red ochre crosshatching over a thin pipeclay wash and blocks of varying shades of red and orange ochre wash in blocks. The legs have been broken at the knee joints and partially severed. The background of the painting is brown. - click to view larger image — *Butchered Kangaroo* by Bardayal Nadjamerrek

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark and on wooden restrainers. It depicts two fish outlined in pipeclay with internal detail added in red and yellow ochre and charcoal. The painting has a red background. - click to view larger image — *Warlkkarra dja Karlerrh (Ox-Eye Herring and Long Tom)* by Bardayal Nadjamerrek

A bark painting worked in ochres and on wooden restrainers. It depicts a male spirit figure in the background who is painted in pipeclay and infilled with dashes. In the foreground there are four female figures outlined in pipeclay and infilled with crosshatching. - click to view larger image — *Nawongberd and His Four Wives* by Dick Nguleingulei Murrumurru

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark and on wooden restraienrs. It depicts three serpents with spikes and red and white crosshatching. The serpents are shown arranged in u-shapes. The painting has a brown background. - click to view larger image — *Three Rainbow Serpents* by Fred Didjbaralkka Narroldol

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts a human skeleton with its legs crossed in a seated position. The figure has long arms and an uplifted right shoulder. The skeleton is crosshatched in red, yellow and purple. It has white hands, face and teeth. The painting has a red background. - click to view larger image — *Dead Man* by Dick Nguleingulei Murrumurru

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark and on wooden restrainers. It features a kangaroo and Mimi figure. The kangaroo is painted with red, white and green hatching. The figure is painted in red and white. The painting has a red background. - click to view larger image — *Mimih Hunting* by Dick Nguleingulei Murrumurru

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark and on wooden restrainers. It depicts a male plains kangaroo painted as a pipeclay silhouette. This is infilled with cross hatching and x-ray detail depicting the heart, lungs, backbone, liver and other parts of the intestinal tract. The painting has a brown ochre background. - click to view larger image — *Butchered Kangaroo* by Dick Nguleingulei Murrumurru

Dynamic figures

Dynamic figures is a term applied to a style of rock painting in western Arnhem Land that dates back at least 15,000 years. These figures are drawn as though caught in the act of movement, whether running, throwing a spear or dancing. A number of artists in this exhibition, including Najombolmi, Wally Mandarrk and Bardayal Nadjamerrek, also painted on rock.

The figures in these paintings are usually referred to as mimih. These are not ancestral or creator beings but spirits who inhabit the rocky escarpment. Mimih are credited with teaching the Bininj people the arts of living: how to hunt, cook, dance, sing and paint.

A type of painting that appears in the rock art of the region concerns sorcery. Such paintings were often commissioned to bring harm on a person who had wronged another, often for sexual infidelity. In the latter case, images of the culprits are drawn with distended and multiple limbs in awkward postures and occasionally with stingray barbs inserted into the joints and flesh to inflict pain.

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depcits two male Mimi spirits dancing. Each figure has his head thrown back, a hand over his mouth and his legs crossed and twisted. The figures are painted white with red outlines and have red, black and yellow parallel lines on their bodies. The painting has a red background. - click to view larger image — *Two Mimih Spirits Dancing* by Paddy Compass Namatbara

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts a male Mimi spirit with four elongated arms, four legs and two penises. The arms have vertical stripes while the torso and legs have horizontal stripes. - click to view larger image — *The Dead Spirit* by Yirawala

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts six Mimi figures two larger females and four smaller males, all with raised hands walking to the same direction. Each figure is painted in white with parallel lines and outlines of black. The painting has a red background. - click to view larger image — *Mimih Spirits* by January Nangunyari Namiridali

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts eight small birds each following each other, arranged in an off-centre oval-shaped ring. The birds are painted white with yellow outlines. They have white crests on their heads and red dots decorating their bodies. The painting has a red background. - click to view larger image — *Ceremony* by January Nangunyari Namiridali

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts a female Mimi figure on the left and a male Mimi figure on the right. Both have one hand raised and their legs crossed and twisted. They are painted white with decorations of parallel lines in red, black and yellow. The painting has a red background. - click to view larger image — *Mimih Spirits* by Paddy Compass Namatbara

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts two dancing male Mimi spirit figures. Each figure has one hand on his hip and the other touching the other's body. The figures are decorated with oblique dotted cross-bands. The painting has a natural background. - click to view larger image — *Two Mimih Spirits Dancing* by Paddy Compass Namatbara

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts a female Mimi spirit figure with elongated limbs and hands extending to the knees. The torso is covered with a diamond shaped design. The figure has a long headdress curving halfway down her back. The painting has a natural bark background with traces of black. - click to view larger image — *Namorrorddo, Malicious Spirit of the Stone Country* by Najombolmi

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts a male and female figure in the act of intercourse. The figures have white heads and arms with crosshatched designs on the rest of their bodies in black, white, red and yellow. They both have small white feathery or plant-like appendages growing from the perimeters of their bodies. The painting has a background of natural bark. - click to view larger image — *Cursing the Lovers* by Paddy Compass Namatbara

Nganjmirra family

The Nganjmirra family is one of the great artistic dynasties of Arnhem Land. Bobby Barrdjaray Nganjmirra was the senior artist of the group in the modern period. The family’s traditional lands lie to the east of Gunbalanya and are the focus of their paintings. Among the most important sites to the Nganjmirra family is Malworn, created by the Yawkyawk Sisters, Likkanaya and Marrayka; the latter is depicted in Barrdjaray’s painting of the same name.

The creation story of this site has similarities to that of the Wägilak Sisters in central Arnhem Land. Nimbuwah Rock is another important place to which the Nganjmirra family has custodial or managerial rights, as opposed to ownership, as it belongs to the opposite moiety, the Duwa.

A bark painting worked in ochres on bark and on wooden restrainers. It depicts a female figure seated on a rock. The figure has the lower half of her proper left arm missing. She is painted in crosshatched diagonal lines of brown and white. The painting has a red background. - click to view larger image — *Marrayka* by Bobby Barrdjaray Nganjmirra

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark and on wooden restrainers. It depicts a spirit figure on the left. On the right there are a number of dancing mimi spirits with one playing a didjiridu, another the clapsticks while another sings.The mimis are infilled with red and black hatching on white. The painting has a red background. - click to view larger image — *Namarrkon the Lightning Man and the Wardbukarra-Wardbukarra* by Jimmy Nakkurridjdjilm Nganjmirra

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts a vertical rectangular shape with a smaller crosshatched horizontal rectangle on top of this and a larger white painted rectangle above this again. There are three feathery white trees attached to this. The main rectangle has patterns of cross hatching with triangular pattterns in white. Below this is an irregular white painted shape divided by bands of red. A further three feathery trees are depicted here beside a crosshatched thorn shape. Below this image are four spears and an axe all painted white. - click to view larger image — *Nimbuwah* by Bobby Barrdjaray Nganjmirra

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark and on wooden restrainers bound with cane. It depicts four figures painted in red, white and black crosshatching. There is a snake in the upper right hand corner and a tree in the lower left hand corner, There is a crosshatched circle between the two central figures. This circle is connected to another similar circle joined to another figure below the snake. - click to view larger image — *Nakidjkidj and Mimih at Nimbuwah Rock* by Bobby Barrdjaray Nganjmirra

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts a Mimi spirit, two fish and a bird in flight all painted with crosshatching designs. The painting has a red background. - click to view larger image — *Mimih, Eagle Hawk and Fish* by Bobby Barrdjaray Nganjmirra

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark and on wooden restrainers. It depicts an elongated shape on the left and then a Northern Brown bandicoot, a sand goanna and a possum. The animals are painted in x-ray style with red and white crosshatching. The shape on the left has been painted as a pipeclay silhouette which rises to a point leaning towards the animals. A band of red cross hatching bordered by white lines surrounds an interior design of six red filled triangles, each bordered by bands of red and yellow hatching. The painting has a red background. - click to view larger image — *Possum, Bandicoot and Goanna at the Sacred Rock* by Jimmy Nakkurridjdjilm Nganjmirra

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark and on wooden restrainers. It depicts a female spirit with a fighting bag and a forked tree next to her with a hanging dillybag. These are painted in pipeclay with bands of infill. This consists of widely spaced sets of transverse red and black lines. - click to view larger image — *Ngaldjorlboh the Spirit Woman* by Bobby Barrdjaray Nganjmirra

Murals

Mural painting is another form of painting on bark, and stems from the practice of artists drawing or painting on the inside walls of their family bark huts or shelters.

There are two main types of bark shelter in Arnhem Land: one with straight walls, and the other made of walls curved over a horizontal beam (see George Milpurrurru’s Galawu (Stringybark House). Both types are built using large sheets of flattened bark. Painting on bark shelter walls predominated until the early 20th century, when collectors created a demand for more portable bark paintings.

Wally Mandarrk’s Borlung and Kangaroo was a mural made specifically for Mandarrk’s family in a camp at Mankorlod that was later abandoned. It was discovered by a Maningrida art centre manager, Dan Gillespie, in 1973. Two Frogs and a Baby Brolga was also cut from the wall of such a shelter.

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts two frogs and a bird, each painted in white with dotted outlines and yellow zigzags on the body. The painting has a natural brown background. - click to view larger image — *Two Frogs and a Baby Brolga* by an unknown artist

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts a red snake outlined in yellow coiled over a large white male kangaroo. Between the tail of the serpent and the legs of the kangaroo are two red bean shapes. The painting has a natural bark background. - click to view larger image — *Borlung and Kangaroo* by Wally Mandarrk

A bark painting, worked with ochres and has wooden restrainers at either end. It depicts a squatting female figure painted in red, black, white and yellow crosshatching. One hand has five digits and the other two. The painting has a red background. - click to view larger image — *Spirit Figure* by Wally Mandarrk

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All these bark paintings are part of the National Museum of Australia’s collection. © the artist or the artist’s estate, licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency 2013, unless otherwise specified. These images must not be reproduced in any form without permission.

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