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BININJ DJANG (MEN DREAMING): JOE GUYMALA, SHAUN NAMARMYILK, GRAHAM BADARI, GLEN NAMUNDJA

Past exhibition
23 June - 20 July 2023
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Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Joe Guymala, Assorted Birds, 2019

Joe Guymala Australian, Kunwinjku, b. 1969

Assorted Birds, 2019
ochre on arches paper
102 x 76 cm
701-19
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Joe Guymala has depicted animals looking around for manme (food) inside a cave. Karnamarr (Black Cockatoo), Komorlo (Egret) and Karldurrk (Blue-Winged Kookaburra). The animals are presented in a multi-point perspective...
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Joe Guymala has depicted animals looking around for manme (food) inside a cave. Karnamarr (Black Cockatoo), Komorlo (Egret) and Karldurrk (Blue-Winged Kookaburra).

The animals are presented in a multi-point perspective composition, the multiple perspectives remind the viewer of the tumbling vibrance of life in western Arnhem Land, and the importance of maintaining traditional custodianship of country and keep the two moieties, dura and yirritja in balance. The moieties are represented through the colours red and yellow. Red also represents flesh, while yellow represents animal fat. The colours are both found naturally occurring throughout Arnhem Land as ochre deposits.
Everything in western Arnhem Land has a moiety, from people to plants, rocks, to animals, and maintaining the balance of the world is an fundamental responsibility for the bininj people who live there.

The Karldurrk (Blue-Winged Kookaburra), on the left, "when they see bush fires, they fly down and eat grasshoppers, or whatever they find, same as kite." We see karldurrk (the blue-winged kookaburra, Dacelo leachii) in many different clan countries, by rivers and in the open forests and jungle areas. We hear her singing in the morning, during the day and in the afternoon when the sun is about to go down. We don't hunt karldurrk, she's not good eating. But she hunts small animals like grasshoppers and other insects.

Egrets are one of the numerous water birds found in freshwater rivers and billabongs around Arnhem Land. They are a major source of food for the Kunwinjku people of Oenpelli. These birds feed in shallow water during the day, eating fish, crustaceans, molluscs and water insects. Komorlo hunt by standing still at the water's edge. They can often be seen like sentinels, evenly spaced around the edge of a waterhole or billabong. They slowly stalk their prey, using a quick jab of the bill to snare it.

We see lots of karnamarr (red-tailed black cockatoos, Calyptorhynchus banksii) in woodlands when we burn country. We see them wandering around on the ground eating the charcoal, or sitting in trees. Especially in Kurrung, the dry season, we see lots of karnamarr. If we look to the east, we can see a rock that looks like it has been painted with red ochre. It's called Karnamarrkoyyiwakeng (The Black Cockatoo Walked?), and merges with the country Kunnanj. It belonged to a man called Karnawulu of the Murruwan clan, of Nangarridj skin. From there on the country is Kunnanj proper.
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