Artist: Brendon Dirdi | Title: Long Necked Turtle | Year: 2022 | Medium: Ochres on Bark | Dimensions: 30 x 66 cm
PROVENANCE
Injalak Arts & Crafts Association, Oenpelli NT Cat No. 819-22
ARTWORK STORY
A beautifully rendered painting of Ngalmangiyi – the (delicious) long-necked or snake-neck turtle found in freshwater billabongs throughout the Top End.
Long Necked Turtles, Chelodina rugosa, are found in open areas like flood plains. Women will go out looking for “mim”, the small holes the turtles breathe through as they lie buried under the mud. In the old days, women would take a digging stick called “kunbarlkbu”, which they sharpened so it would penetrate the mud. Nowadays women fashion turtling sticks from old pieces of metal, which they sharpen and make wooden handles for. These are called “kubba” (from the English “crowbar”). If the stick makes a knocking sound when it goes into the mud, people know there is a turtle there. People take the turtles and cook them on the fire or in ground ovens, opening them up to eat them. The best times for hunting turtles are the six or so months after Kudjewk (the monsoon season) that occurs at the beginning of the year.
Kunwinjku art is part of the oldest continuous art tradition in the world. Ancestors of today’s artists have been painting the rock walls of West Arnhem Land for tens of thousands of years. The traditional palette of white, red, yellow and black comes from the ochre that naturally occurs in the region, although contemporary artists sometimes choose to paint in acrylics as well. Kunwinjku artists famously paint using either the traditional rarrk hatching technique, or the more contemporary and complex cross hatching technique which has been adapted from ceremonial painting. These lines are carefully painted using a manyilk, which is a piece of sedge grass shaved down until only a few fibres remain.
Artist Profile
COMMUNITY/REGION
Gunbalanya, West Arnhem Land
LANGUAGE
Bininj
BIOGRAPHY
Brendon Dirdi was taught how to paint by his maternal grandfather, Thompson Yulidjirri. Brendon's country is Kubarledjawuy,on the Liverpool River near Mumeka, and his mother’s country is Namardankardayi near Kabbari.
PROVENANCE
Injalak Arts & Crafts Association, Oenpelli NT Cat No. 819-22
ARTWORK STORY
A beautifully rendered painting of Ngalmangiyi – the (delicious) long-necked or snake-neck turtle found in freshwater billabongs throughout the Top End.
Long Necked Turtles, Chelodina rugosa, are found in open areas like flood plains. Women will go out looking for “mim”, the small holes the turtles breathe through as they lie buried under the mud. In the old days, women would take a digging stick called “kunbarlkbu”, which they sharpened so it would penetrate the mud. Nowadays women fashion turtling sticks from old pieces of metal, which they sharpen and make wooden handles for. These are called “kubba” (from the English “crowbar”). If the stick makes a knocking sound when it goes into the mud, people know there is a turtle there. People take the turtles and cook them on the fire or in ground ovens, opening them up to eat them. The best times for hunting turtles are the six or so months after Kudjewk (the monsoon season) that occurs at the beginning of the year.
Kunwinjku art is part of the oldest continuous art tradition in the world. Ancestors of today’s artists have been painting the rock walls of West Arnhem Land for tens of thousands of years. The traditional palette of white, red, yellow and black comes from the ochre that naturally occurs in the region, although contemporary artists sometimes choose to paint in acrylics as well. Kunwinjku artists famously paint using either the traditional rarrk hatching technique, or the more contemporary and complex cross hatching technique which has been adapted from ceremonial painting. These lines are carefully painted using a manyilk, which is a piece of sedge grass shaved down until only a few fibres remain.
Artist Profile
COMMUNITY/REGION
Gunbalanya, West Arnhem Land
LANGUAGE
Bininj
BIOGRAPHY
Brendon Dirdi was taught how to paint by his maternal grandfather, Thompson Yulidjirri. Brendon's country is Kubarledjawuy,on the Liverpool River near Mumeka, and his mother’s country is Namardankardayi near Kabbari.