Elder Wing of Australian Art: Plain English Tour
Work 3 of 15

Minimini Numalkiykiya Mamarika was an Anindilyakwa artist.

He was from Groote Eylandt.

Groote Eylandt is an island in the sea off the coast of Northern Australia.

Minimini was born there in 1904 and died in 1972.

Makassan and Bugis fisher people used to come to Groote Eylandt each year.

They lived 2000 kilometres away in what is now Indonesia.

They used to travel to Groote Eylandt when Minimini was a little boy.

They fished for trepang,

a type of animal that lives on the sea floor.

The painting was made in 1948.

It is made from bark from the stringybark tree.

The bark is cut off the tree in the wet season.

Minimini had made the bark flat.

He painted it with different coloured pigment.

A pigment is a type of coloured material found in the ground.

The painting shows a boat called a perahu.

It is a sailing boat powered by the wind.

It is the type of boat that was used to travel to Minimini’s island.

The people on the boat are fishing.