Details of Ilma

Catalog Number : 23319
Size : 113cm x 68cm
Medium : acrylic on plywood, cotton wool
View full resolution image of this artwork
For Sale : Contact Short St Gallery
Ilma is a term that refers to open ceremonies performed by the Bardi people and the objects used in these ceremonies. The Bardi's country is situated north of Broome on the Dampier Peninsula. Ilma ceremonies are composed and owned by individuals. These men are said to have received the songs and the form of the dances from rai spirits of dead men.

(Extract from Western Desert Appeal catalogue / assoc. with Papunya Tula exhibition, 2000)
Bardi totems are complex in design and are distinctively different from the more basic string cross designs in other areas of the Kimberley. The Bardi and neighbouring Jawi were a seafaring people who built flimsy rafts from light mangrove poles fastened together with wooden skewers. The people lived largely off marine products and had an unparalleled understanding of the intricacies of the treacherous tides, rips, whirlpools and overfalls for which the Buccaneer Archipelago is infamous.