Ngarrangkari Bookarrarrani Yinuranangary:
The Dreaming made it that way

To the north, their Ngarinyin neighbours have a similar concept – the Ngarranggarni – an all-encompassing term that refers to creation, history and traditional law. For senior members of both language groups, their lives and world-view are shaped by adherence to the fundamental and mystical truths of the Dreaming. Their principle value system, derived from the Ngarranggarni, is based on a complex agglomeration of knowledge and learning acquired through persistence and hard work.

Nestled in the muddy waters of the King Sound, where the mouth of the Fitzroy River insouciantly melds with the Indian Ocean, the remote Kimberley township of Derby seems an unlikely place for an artistic renaissance. And yet, through their persistence and hard-work, coupled with a deep integrity to record their traditional country and stories, the artists of Manambarra Aboriginal Artists have created a movement of unique dynamism. While their works have travelled the world, receiving acclaim from all quarters, the artists have remained committed to the task of documenting their homelands and the ancient wisdom of the Dreaming.

Whilst steeped in traditional Kimberley knowledge, these artists have consistently tested the boundaries of what might be considered ‘traditional’ Kimberley art. In a few short years of painting, they have created a new language of painting that locates their intricate and affectionate knowledge of country and law within highly personalised modes of painterly expressiveness.

Although renowned for their paintings on canvas, in 2006 the artists of Manambarra Aboriginal Arts began working on paper. The new medium allowed a vitality and freshness of approach. Paper became a place for experimentation and play, in which the gravitas of their mark-making could be balanced with the joie de vivre of recalling their traditional lands.

This sense of experimentation is keenly evident in the works of senior Ngarinyin painter Lucy Ward. A master of experimentation, in Ward’s works on paper her familiar motifs are pushed to their recognisable limits. This restless artistic movement can be seen as a metaphor for Ward’s nomadic philosophy of knowledge acquired through ‘footwalking’ the country. Each mark upon the paper becomes like a fingerprint, betraying the trace of its creator’s movement. In painting her ancestral lands, Ward’s marks reveal her ownership of the country, like footprints in a landscape that she has traversed by foot, understood instinctively and known intimately.

Similarly, for senior Nyikina artist Loongkoonan, paper has been a format for formal and conceptual experimentation, where the formal order of her canvases has been replaced with a vibrant play of movement and tension that offers a loving view of the overflowing plenitude of ‘bush tucker’ in Nyikina country. Loongkoonan’s works on paper have already drawn substantial praise, with two works being acquired for the Australian Parliament House Collection.

In 2009, both Lucy Ward and Loongkoonan have been selected to participate in the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize at Bendigo Art Gallery. The prize is one of Australia’s richest and most prestigious art awards. In August, Peggy Wassi and Omborrin have both been selected for inclusion in the 2009 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. For Omborrin, the exhibition will be a posthumous testament to his remarkable skill, and will be the fifth time that he has exhibited in the prestigious event.

Mossenson Galleries are very pleased to present Ngarrangkari Bookarrarrani Yinuranangary: an important exhibition of works on paper by the artists of Manambarra Aboriginal Artists Inc. (Derby). The exhibition will be launched at 41 Derby Street Collingwood at 2pm on Saturday 4 July 2009 with a floortalk by writer and curator Henry Skerritt. For more information please contact Mossenson Galleries on (03) 9417 6694 or collingwood@mossensongalleries.com.au