Lumahlumah with magic power bags
/https://agsa-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/media/dd/images/48416-HQ-729P19.97b8ef4.jpg)
Kuninjku people, Northern Territory
1903 – 1976
Lumahlumah with magic power bags
c 1972
earth pigments on Stringybark (Eucalyptus tetrodonta)
- Place made
- Marrkolidjban, western Arnhem Land, Northern Territory
- Medium
- earth pigments on Stringybark (Eucalyptus tetrodonta)
- Dimensions
- 76.8 x 31.0 cm
- Credit line
- South Australian Government Grant 1972
- Accession number
- 729P19
- Signature and date
- Not signed. Not dated.
- Media category
- Painting
- Collection area
- Australian paintings - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
- Copyright
- © Estate of Billy Yirawala/Aboriginal Artists Agency
-
Yirawala revolutionised Kuninjku bark painting in the 1960s with his introduction of rarrk, the cross-hatching used in body painting, which infused his work with aesthetic vibrancy and cultural potency. The foremost Kuninjku artist of his time, he was recognised with an MBE. He was also active in land rights issues in the early 1970s, encouraging a return to Country from settlements and missions amid fear of damage to cultural sites from mining and grazing in his western Arnhem Land home.
Lumahlumah with magic power bags depicts an ancestral creation being whose site Yirawala had feared was at risk. Attached to Lumahlumah’s elbows and knees are bags containing the stones that allowed him to control the sea. Lumahlumah also taught the use of rarrk to Kuninjku by cutting marks on his body. The painting, created soon after Yirawala had returned to his Country, serves as an affirmation of Kuninjku cultural and territorial authority.
Barry Patton, Tarnanthi Writer & Researcher
-
[Book] AGSA 500.