Recovering Knowledge
Yirrkala, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory
In 1948, the Australian Museum collaborated with the National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC and the South Australian Museum in Adelaide in one of the largest anthropological expeditions ever mounted in Australia. The expedition was funded by the National Geographic Society, USA.
The expedition focused on the Yirrkala area of north-east Arnhem Land and studied contemporary and past Aboriginal life. A large collection of bark paintings from the expedition was later shared between the National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, the South Australian Museum and the Australian Museum. The bark paintings tell various stories about the history of parts of Arnhem Land.
Little information was collected during the 1948 expedition, and we do not even know the names of the artists who created these bark paintings. In the late 1970s, the late Wandjuk Marika of Yirrkala visited the Australian Museum and provided descriptions, excerpts from which are presented here with each painting.
Bark Painting - Natural pigments on bark, E53149
Artist unknown: Yiritja group
Caledon Bay, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia, collected 1948
In creation times, when creatures were human, the Garabi Islands were the home of the hump-backed whale, the stingray, the queen fish, the crocodile and the hawksbill turtle. Later, these mythical beings transformed themselves and went into the sky to become part of the Milky Way near the constellation Orion.
Bark Painting - Natural pigments on bark, E53160
Artist unknown
Port Bradshaw, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia, collected 1948
This is a hunting scene on a river near Port Bradshaw. On the left a woman stands on a rock (the rectangle) in the river. Opposite her, and upside down, is her husband Wirili. In the centre is the crocodile Barou, and in the lower right hand section is a large bone-fish, Jungala. Near the tail of the crocodile and in the same panel as the bone-fish are seven rock cod, Kouper.
Bark Painting - Natural pigments on bark, E53169
Artist unknown
Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia, collected 1948
Tjambuwal, the Thunderman, is an important ancestor of the Dua moiety of the Yirrkala people. He created the clouds, storms and thunder, as well as the little Dua spirit children, jurtu, who came down from the sky in raindrops and became human beings.
Bark Painting - Natural pigments on bark, E53148
Artists unknown: Yiritja men of Gumaitj language group
Cape Arnhem, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia, collected 1948
In the early days, two whales lived in large caves at the bottom of the sea at Cape Arnhem. The male whale was called Welerria, and the female one Morokundja. They had a companion, a stingray called Kawangalk-miri. At the end of the creation period, the two whales and the stingray went up into the sky and became part of the Milky Way, near the constellation of Orion.
Copyright © Australian Museum 2004