Brought to Light Australian Art 1850-1965

Journeys of Macassan fishermen from the Indonesian archipelago across the northern coast of Australia are evident in abstract works collected from each of the three camps. This borrowing through intercultural contact shows Aboriginal people's ability to absorb and adapt outside influences to enrich an evolving culture. The two barks, Bara, the north-west wind by Gulbidja Bara and Mamariga, the south­ east wind, show this cross-cultural fertilisation. Not only do these totemic structures refer specifically to the winds that mark the two major seasons in Arnhem Land (the wet and the dry), which affect food and ceremonial cycles, but they also replicate the shape of the sails of the Macassan praus that are dependent on the same winds for their forward and return journeys. The source of the north-west wind is said to be a totemic tree at Majanja in the middle of Blue Mud Bay. Markings refer to incisions in the tree's bark made to release the ancestral spirits of the Warnungwadarrbulangwa clan that carry bara, the wind-forming clouds that accumulate before the wet season. The schematised limbs and rectangular shape of the tree form the central image. At the end of the wet season the people whose totem is Mamariga visit Aitja-Wala-madja in the south east of the island and pound on two spear-like rocks with boulders to release the dry-season wind. Borne on these winds are the spirits of the future children of the Wirinikapare moiety who originate from this site. They hide in the tall grass until the father 'dreams' about a spirit child who then enters the womb of one of his wives. Probably the most intriguing bark painting in terms of individual expression of an everyday subject is An Aboriginal family. Distributed liberally over the surface is evidence of a burgeoning extended family. Amongst the number of variously aged children, the father is shown large next to the mother who is suckling an infant. One can only speculate on the significance of the different colours. For instance, it is known that yellow ochre is generally reserved for the most important and Artist unknown Australia An Aboriginal family 1948 Natural pigments on bark 64x35.8cm Gift of the 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land 1956 Queensland Art Gallery sacred subjects in non-secular paintings and that white is often associated with the young. There is no reason to assume that the size of the figure is necessarily related to physical size, so some of the yellow figures, although small, may be initiates. The twelve Groote paintings in the Queensland Art Gallery's Indigenous Art Collection represent the Gallery's only holdings of works from this area. Bark paintings from the island are no longer available to collectors, a demise hastened by the introduction of mining in the 1960s. Although people still paint, the infrastructure for dispersal of the barks is not present. It is fortunate then that three times as many works were collected from this camp than from the other two camps, which continue to be prolific producers of art. Camp 2 — Yirrkala We pitched our tents on the crown of a sand hill carpeted with a mat of thick grass ... Before us was an open curving beach ... and behind us a freshwater swamp, shaded by large trees, fringed with luxuriant grasses and intersected with a stream of clear water .16 The abundance of this area is reflected in the almost abstract painting on card entitled Swamp, whilst the sea is depicted in Death, burial and the journey o f the spirit to the land o f the dead. The latter work shows a mortuary ceremony surrounded by swirling white cross-hatching indicating the dust raised by the dancers' feet and the blood flowing from the mourning women's heads as they gash themselves with sharp bones. A canoe, guided by a plover, conveys the spirit of the deceased. Wave patterns of the open sea shimmer in three of the panels, with indications of sand banks shown by bands of white cross-hatching. A similar degree of abstraction occurs in Orion and the Pleiades, in which Orion, symbolically represented by a T-shape, is believed to be a canoe containing Yirritija men and women, shown as dots. A storm drowns them and their catch of whale, fish and turtle, which become part of the Milky Way. 214 BROUGHT TO LIGHT: Australian Art 1850-1965