Long neck turtles, 2021

natural earth pigments and synthetic polymer paint on bark

$600

Provenance: Injalak Arts, Gunbalanya, NT, Cat No. 2138-21
Artwork story: Artist's Date of Birth: 2021-12-30 Artist's Community: Jabiru That Manbiri (sea turtle) she is a large animal who lives in the ocean and eats seaweed. In the old days people used to go in a canoe, see manbiri and spear it with a kind of harpoon (ngalidjdjalidj). Then they would take it home and cook it, the guts and the whole body, and share it with family in the camp. We call the juices from cooking the manbiri “wulud”. The old people used to wash the long intestines in the salt water, then chop them up and cook them in a flour drum. Manbirri lays its eggs and bury on the highest part of the beach, so the old people used to follow his tracks and see where he dug the hole. There they would poke the sand with sticks to feel for eggs, then dig them up by hand and take them away. Sometimes they would eat the eggs raw and sometimes they would cook them. People that lived by the seas used to eat the eggs raw. - Injalak Arts & Crafts Association

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natural earth pigments and synthetic polymer paint on bark

$600

Provenance: Injalak Arts, Gunbalanya, NT, Cat No. 2138-21
Artwork story: Artist's Date of Birth: 2021-12-30 Artist's Community: Jabiru That Manbiri (sea turtle) she is a large animal who lives in the ocean and eats seaweed. In the old days people used to go in a canoe, see manbiri and spear it with a kind of harpoon (ngalidjdjalidj). Then they would take it home and cook it, the guts and the whole body, and share it with family in the camp. We call the juices from cooking the manbiri “wulud”. The old people used to wash the long intestines in the salt water, then chop them up and cook them in a flour drum. Manbirri lays its eggs and bury on the highest part of the beach, so the old people used to follow his tracks and see where he dug the hole. There they would poke the sand with sticks to feel for eggs, then dig them up by hand and take them away. Sometimes they would eat the eggs raw and sometimes they would cook them. People that lived by the seas used to eat the eggs raw. - Injalak Arts & Crafts Association