Richard Bloomer Australian, Ngarinyman, b. 1974
Two sisters story, 2026
Natural ochre and pigment on canvas
80 x 100 cm
0123-26
A rainbow snake travelled from Gimoorl country and created a river going towards Woombanji country (Jamanjoong). There he met up with two sisters and asked the old man if one...
A rainbow snake travelled from Gimoorl country and created a river going towards Woombanji country (Jamanjoong). There he met up with two sisters and asked the old man if one of the sisters was his promised wife, but he wouldn'tanswer. He kept both sisters as his wives. He then held them down in the water and sunbathed them. The old man saw a honey sucker and asked him for tucker for them, but the honeysucker didn’t listen and he flew away. The honeysucker dived into the water and had his own feed. The old man asked him again but was ignored once more. He then saw two brolgas and asked them to empty the river with the coolamons. They did what was asked and then the honey sucker came back and he dived straight into the river, but there was no water and he hit the bottom. He wondered where all the water had gone. The two brolgas were flying around with the two coolamons full of the water. The honeysucker then saw a frog in the dry creek bed. He told the frog that the brolgas had taken all the water away from the river in coolamons. He then made a spear and speared the coolamons. The coolaman and the waters both poured down and filled the riverbed with water again. There was a small bat hanging around he saw the old man there with his two wives and he followed them back to Gimoorl where they stayed in a cave. When the old man and his wives were asleep the bat made a spear and speared the old man, and the two wives fled back upstream and formed into two hills which stand there today.