SPOTLIGHT ON BARK PAINTINGS: BEAUTIFUL BARKS FROM ARNHEM LAND
Forthcoming viewing_room
Ken Ngindjalakku Djunkidj
Dirdbim (Moon Dreaming), 2019
Ochre on bark
131 x 40 cm
835028
The images in this painting refer to a site in the clan estate of the artist, at a place called Dirdbim which literally means 'image of the moon'. The site...
The images in this painting refer to a site in the clan estate of the artist, at a place called Dirdbim which literally means 'image of the moon'. The site is a large, unusually round hole in sandstone,r esidual on the plain not far from the Mann River. Ken Djungkidj Ngindjalakku's father, Mick Kubarkku was an artist well known for his paintings of the full and new moons, the sun and the stars. He also taught several family members, including his sons, Djungkudj and Paul Nabulumo, and wife LuluLaradjbi, to paint this important dreaming. Here, in the tradition of his father, the artist has painted the full and new moon called dird bukkulurl and lirrk kurrmeng in the Eastern Kunwinjkulanguage. The large hole is said to be the full moon created by the rainbow serpent Ngalyod, who pierced the rock intimes of the 'dreaming' and left the shape of the full moon. Dirdbim is not far from the artists’ residence today at Yikarrakkal and the area is rich in rock art and old camping sites. As well there are numerous human remains, bones wrapped up in paper bark and older remains lying in clefts of sandstone shelters. The Eastern Kunwinjku people of the district have always used Dirdbim as a mortuary site because of the mythological history of the area which is connected to the moon story. This is because the mythology of the moon ancestor relates how his adversary, the spotted quoll, argued with the moon over the fate of humanity. The quoll decided he would die once and once only but the moon took his place in the sky to be reborn each lunar month. Because of this Kubarkku often painted this subject with bones or murrngno surrounding the image, just as human bones surround the actual site at Dirdbim. The techniques of bark painting are usually handed down from one generation to the next, as are the rights of each artist to a particular site or 'dreaming'. The similarity between this painting by Djungkidj, and some of his father's paintings is a reflection of this process of transmission.