Taboo Food Story, 1968

natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark

75 x 40 cm

$6,000

Secure payment via Stripe. Prices in AUD.

Provenance: Lawsons, October, 1998, Lot 280 (labels attached) The Collection of Milton and Alma Roxanas Bonhams, May 2014, Lot 163 Private Collection Qld
Artwork story: This bark painting depicts the story Goobalathaldin returned to more often than any other, the confrontation between the warrior Marnbil and Dewalewul, known in the artist's early exhibition titles as Debil Debil. It belongs to the creation narrative of the Balamando people, the first ancestors of Lardil Country, who came from the west led by Marnbil with his wife Gin Gin and her uncle Dewalewul. Travelling through the islands, these three immortals shaped the world the Lardil people would inherit. They created and named the animals, built the first rock-walled fish traps and dug the freshwater wells that would sustain life for generations. On the last day of their journey the three separated. Marnbil crossed to Bountiful Island to dig a well, Gin Gin stayed near camp gathering tubers and roots, and Dewalewul went to Turtle Island. Returning early, Dewalewul found Gin Gin alone at the fire and seduced her. Marnbil came back and saw them together. He crept up behind the pair and drove his spear into Dewalewul, who spun as he was struck, throwing up a ring of raised earth that became the first Bora, or ceremonial ground. Rising into the sky, Dewalewul chose to die, and with his death he condemned Marnbil, Gin Gin and all their descendants to mortality. The remains of the three ancestors endure on a reef off Mornington Island, where their mineralised legs rise from the water as sharp stone spikes. The site stands as a permanent reminder of Lardil law governing marriage and kinship, and of the events that gave the islands their physical and cultural form. Roughsey structured these paintings as narrative registers, dividing the bark into horizontal bands read in sequence, a storytelling device that became one of the signatures of his practice. Painted in natural earth pigments, the work carries both the authority of the story and the graphic clarity that made Goobalathaldin one of the most distinctive bark painters of his generation.

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Dick Roughsey (Goobalatheldin)

1924 – 1985

Region: Cape York, Gulf & Far North Queensland
Community: Mornington Island (Gununa)
Language group: Lardil

Taboo Food Story, 1968

natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark

75 x 40 cm

$6,000

Secure payment via Stripe. Prices in AUD.

Provenance: Lawsons, October, 1998, Lot 280 (labels attached) The Collection of Milton and Alma Roxanas Bonhams, May 2014, Lot 163 Private Collection Qld
Artwork story: This bark painting depicts the story Goobalathaldin returned to more often than any other, the confrontation between the warrior Marnbil and Dewalewul, known in the artist's early exhibition titles as Debil Debil. It belongs to the creation narrative of the Balamando people, the first ancestors of Lardil Country, who came from the west led by Marnbil with his wife Gin Gin and her uncle Dewalewul. Travelling through the islands, these three immortals shaped the world the Lardil people would inherit. They created and named the animals, built the first rock-walled fish traps and dug the freshwater wells that would sustain life for generations. On the last day of their journey the three separated. Marnbil crossed to Bountiful Island to dig a well, Gin Gin stayed near camp gathering tubers and roots, and Dewalewul went to Turtle Island. Returning early, Dewalewul found Gin Gin alone at the fire and seduced her. Marnbil came back and saw them together. He crept up behind the pair and drove his spear into Dewalewul, who spun as he was struck, throwing up a ring of raised earth that became the first Bora, or ceremonial ground. Rising into the sky, Dewalewul chose to die, and with his death he condemned Marnbil, Gin Gin and all their descendants to mortality. The remains of the three ancestors endure on a reef off Mornington Island, where their mineralised legs rise from the water as sharp stone spikes. The site stands as a permanent reminder of Lardil law governing marriage and kinship, and of the events that gave the islands their physical and cultural form. Roughsey structured these paintings as narrative registers, dividing the bark into horizontal bands read in sequence, a storytelling device that became one of the signatures of his practice. Painted in natural earth pigments, the work carries both the authority of the story and the graphic clarity that made Goobalathaldin one of the most distinctive bark painters of his generation.