Brought to Light Australian Art 1850-1965

topographical conditions — an island, a coastal community and an inland area. These differences 'determined not only the distribution of different flora and fauna but also the Aboriginal way of life', a connection that Mountford clearly understood as integral to the style and cultural significance of the art produced in each region.1 The following descriptions of the works collected trace the route of the expedition. Camp 1 — Groote Eylandt Groote Eylandt is located in the Gulf of Carpentaria some fifty kilometres from the coast of north-east Arnhem Land and six hundred and thirty kilometres east of Darwin. Three hundred square kilometres in size, it is the largest of an archipelago that includes Chasm and Bickerton islands. Groote is called Ayangkwulyumuda, meaning 'big island', by those on the smaller islands nearby, a term that is also used to describe the mainland. Fourteen weeks were spent on the island, beginning in April 1948, at a site described by Mountford as 'an Island camp with a somewhat stony hinterland and a distinctive Aboriginal culture'.12 Distinguished by their dense black backgrounds and floating forms more akin to drawing than painting, Groote Eylandt works reflect the rich rock art tradition, the abundance of manganese oxide, and the seafaring lifestyle of the people.13In contrast to the art of north-east and central Arnhem Land, these works do not feature cross-hatching or designs filling the entire painting surface, although there has been a greater tendency since the 1960s towards fuller compositions taking in areas outside the central motifs. As noted by researcher Craig Elliott, infill bands of broken and unbroken lines and dots 'tend to be sympathetic to the observable morphology of the subject', such as the patterns on a crab's carapace or the feathers of a bird.14 As a sea-going people, the painters demonstrated a deep knowledge of the major constellations, and this is the subject of The Southern Cross and the coal sack. A large groper fish called Alakitja 'who swam in the celestial waters'15was speared by two brothers Wanamoumitja who together form Alpha and Beta. After dividing the fish, they cooked their share on their own fires, shown by two white circles near the fish's tail. The glow of these fires are the two stars of the Southern Cross, Delta and Gamma. Recent research has shown that details of this story are unfamiliar to current Groote Eylandters but that Delta and Gamma remain the totems of two different clans, Wamungwamakwula and Warnindilyakwa. The crab figured in Crab, Angwala, attributed to Nambaduba Manimhamanja of the Wurrumaminyamanja clan, is said to belong to another constellation, as well as having strong associations with the formation of topographical features due to its burrowing actions. Angwala, an unmarried sky man, lives alone as a group of small stars at the head of Hydra and also belongs to a pantheon of ancestral creatures who left Groote Eylandt to travel by sea to Bickerton Island, and then to the mainland. Today this story is known only to the mainlanders. Also with strong celestial connections is the bark Imoraka, the green turtle and canoe. The sun is referred to locally as the turtle in the sky, and Mamoura, the sun woman. Imoraka ( Chelonia mydas) travelled from one site to another, leaving totemic rock formations and sand depressions and finally coming to rest at Mamoura-madja, or place of the sun, which is the 'increase site' for the green turtle, and a place of ceremony. Another mainland connection is described by a mythical journey undertaken by four crows, ji-invua (Corvus ceciloe ), from Rose River, on the western coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, to Bickerton Island. After creating a swamp there, they flew to the Bustard Islands halfway between Groote and Bickerton. This bark painting, Ji-inwa (crows) at Unwara-dina-madja, Bustard Islands, is exquisitely composed in a circular formation, echoed and anchored by the outline of a nest in the centre containing the hatchling of the male crow to the right. Large outcrops of stones at Unwara symbolise components of the story of this work. CHARLES MOUNTFORD AND THE 'BASTARD BARKS' 213