Mimihs hunting Freshwater Crocodile, 1993

natural earth pigments on bark

36 x 124 cm

$3,500

Artwork story: Aboriginal groups living in the rocky environments of Western Arnhem Land believe that Mimih spirits taught the first humans how to hunt and butcher game and also how to dance, sing and paint. Mimih are terribly thin, having necks so slender that a stiff breeze would be fatal. For this reason they emerge only on windless days and nights to hunt. As soon as a breeze develops, the Mimih are said to run back to their rocky caverns and disappear inside. Kumoken, the long nosed crocodile, can usually be found in open areas rather than dense forest. They are seen in flowing water, and high in the stone country, lying in the sun on logs, on the sand, on rocks or on the banks of creeks or rivers. They eat small prey such as rats, fish, prawns, frogs. Men, such as the artist, caught and ate kumoken and cooked them in a ground oven. They also ate the eggs. Bilinyarra (Biliyeyhkga) Nabegeyo was born c.1920. He was a Kunwinjku speaker, belonging to the Djalama clan and the Yirritja moiety whose country was Mandilbareng. Renowned as a bark painter, Nabegeyo remembered the 1948 expedition on which Mountford collected numerous paintings at Oenpelli. He belonged to a family of painters, having taught his sons Bruce and Mukguddu to paint. He died in the early 1990s, shortly after he created this bark painting. The artist's work was represented in Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia, The Asia Society Galleries, New York, 1988 and is represented in most of the Australian public collections.

Stockroom

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Billinyara Nabegeyo

c.1920 – early 1990s

Region: Arnhem Land
Community: Mandilbareng
Language group: Kunwinjku

Mimihs hunting Freshwater Crocodile, 1993

natural earth pigments on bark

36 x 124 cm

$3,500

Artwork story: Aboriginal groups living in the rocky environments of Western Arnhem Land believe that Mimih spirits taught the first humans how to hunt and butcher game and also how to dance, sing and paint. Mimih are terribly thin, having necks so slender that a stiff breeze would be fatal. For this reason they emerge only on windless days and nights to hunt. As soon as a breeze develops, the Mimih are said to run back to their rocky caverns and disappear inside. Kumoken, the long nosed crocodile, can usually be found in open areas rather than dense forest. They are seen in flowing water, and high in the stone country, lying in the sun on logs, on the sand, on rocks or on the banks of creeks or rivers. They eat small prey such as rats, fish, prawns, frogs. Men, such as the artist, caught and ate kumoken and cooked them in a ground oven. They also ate the eggs. Bilinyarra (Biliyeyhkga) Nabegeyo was born c.1920. He was a Kunwinjku speaker, belonging to the Djalama clan and the Yirritja moiety whose country was Mandilbareng. Renowned as a bark painter, Nabegeyo remembered the 1948 expedition on which Mountford collected numerous paintings at Oenpelli. He belonged to a family of painters, having taught his sons Bruce and Mukguddu to paint. He died in the early 1990s, shortly after he created this bark painting. The artist's work was represented in Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia, The Asia Society Galleries, New York, 1988 and is represented in most of the Australian public collections.