Creatures of the Arafura Swamplands, c.1995

natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark

78 x 63 cm

$3,000

Secure payment via Stripe. Prices in AUD.

Provenance: Robert Muir Old and Rare Books, Perth The Collection of Milton and Alma Roxanas Bonhams, The Roxanas Collection Of Aboriginal Art, Sydney, 11 May 2014, Lot 43, acquired from the above in 1991
Artwork story: In the Dreaming, the magpie geese set out from a mystical place and flew across central Arnhem Land carrying marawurr, a long feathered string, which they used to mark out the territories of the clans. When they reached the Arafura Swamp they cut a length of the string and measured out a vast tract of country, the swamp included, as the land of the Ganalbingu people. In the same era, Ancestral Beings moved through the region giving law, language and ceremony to the people, and beneath the swamp they laid down a hidden network of waterways where the spiritual forces that sustain life still dwell. These ancestors could change form at will, becoming animals, rocks or other features of the landscape, and through these transformations their spirits live on in the creatures of the swamp today. The swamp itself teems with life. Great flocks of magpie geese and other waterbirds settle on its shallow waters at the end of each monsoon, among waterlilies, tortoises, crocodiles, water pythons, fish and flying foxes. When Karritjar, the Rainbow Serpent, calls up the monsoonal rains, the frogs and turtles sing with the totemic snakes of the coming wet. In this bark Djurritjini depicts fish and long-necked turtles, both totems of the artist, moving through the waters of his country, the fine crosshatching evoking the swamp that sustains them.

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Charlie Djurritjini

b. 1952

Region: Arnhem Land
Community: Ramingining
Language group: Ganalbiŋu (Ganalbingu)

Creatures of the Arafura Swamplands, c.1995

natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark

78 x 63 cm

$3,000

Secure payment via Stripe. Prices in AUD.

Provenance: Robert Muir Old and Rare Books, Perth The Collection of Milton and Alma Roxanas Bonhams, The Roxanas Collection Of Aboriginal Art, Sydney, 11 May 2014, Lot 43, acquired from the above in 1991
Artwork story: In the Dreaming, the magpie geese set out from a mystical place and flew across central Arnhem Land carrying marawurr, a long feathered string, which they used to mark out the territories of the clans. When they reached the Arafura Swamp they cut a length of the string and measured out a vast tract of country, the swamp included, as the land of the Ganalbingu people. In the same era, Ancestral Beings moved through the region giving law, language and ceremony to the people, and beneath the swamp they laid down a hidden network of waterways where the spiritual forces that sustain life still dwell. These ancestors could change form at will, becoming animals, rocks or other features of the landscape, and through these transformations their spirits live on in the creatures of the swamp today. The swamp itself teems with life. Great flocks of magpie geese and other waterbirds settle on its shallow waters at the end of each monsoon, among waterlilies, tortoises, crocodiles, water pythons, fish and flying foxes. When Karritjar, the Rainbow Serpent, calls up the monsoonal rains, the frogs and turtles sing with the totemic snakes of the coming wet. In this bark Djurritjini depicts fish and long-necked turtles, both totems of the artist, moving through the waters of his country, the fine crosshatching evoking the swamp that sustains them.