Kun-waral: Spirit Shadows

18 May
18 Jun

A collaboration between Bábbarra Women’s Centre and Maningrida Arts & Culture

SALON PROJECT SPACE
1/3 Vickers Street
Parap

LIMITED EDITION PRINTS

“The kun-waral, they are the shadows of the spirit mob who used to live here. Long time ago, when we were nothing ... these spirits can change shape, transforming from one shape to the next ... All of the spirits are stuck forever in the bim (rock art) on the stone country. That is what my grandfather told me.”

— JANET MARAWARR SPEAKING WITH INGRID JOHANSON, Bábbarra Women’s Centre, March 2019

Kun-waral, a collaboration between Bábbarra Women’s Centre and Maningrida Arts & Culture, refers to the shadow or memory of powerful beings who transformed as they moved across country, before humans arrived.

In the same way, the artists in this show transform and move across artistic mediums, presenting Japanese woodblock prints, etchings, linocuts on fabric and pandanus woven panels.

It was the first time the artists from Bábbarra Women’s Centre had created limited edition fine art prints. The artists carved their own woodblocks and created their own etching plates. Produced during a workshop with Jacqueline Gribbin and Sean Smith in February 2019, artists used the water-based Japanese method "mokuhanga". The prints were editioned by Jacqueline Gribbin in her Darwin studio.

The figures depicted in this exhibition are from over five Arnhem Land language groups, and cross multiple clan estates. The artists only illustrate figures they have the cultural custodianship and family permissions to depict. Marawarr explains that these spirits were all on the earth around the same time, before bininj (people) came in Arnhem Land. They all spoke different languages, the language belonging to their country, and many of them also sing in their languages as they travel and change across country. Some people in Maningrida still know these spirit songs to this day.

Each spirit being has a kinship name, and also belong to either the duwa or yirridjdja moiety. The figures include Mimih (Kuninjku), Mongerrd (Kuninjku), Yawkyawk (Kuninjku), Ngalhdolbo (Kuninjku), Djomi (Kunibidji), Buluwana (Kuninjku), Bawaliba (Gurr-guni), Ngalkalngunjkabarn (Rembarrgna), and Djurrung (Kuninjku).

All aspects of the natural world today are embedded within the complex kinship system and the vast ancestral song lines that define this region. Animals, fish and plants depicted in the artworks reflect this transformative dimension being both natural species and the embodiment of Djang – ancestral power.

IMAGE ABOVE: Laura Badalune, Stingray, 2019, pandanas spiralis and natural dyes, 104 x 59 cm, Cat No. 488-19