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Click to enlarge1927 – 2011
- Region
- Kimberley
- Community
- Baluwa (Violet Valley)
- Language group
- Gija (Kija, Gidja, Kitja)
Jurliwal, 2008
natural earth pigments on canvas
100 x 80 cm
$4,600
Secure payment via Stripe. Prices in AUD.
- Provenance
- Warmun Art Centre, Kununurra, WA, Cat no. WAC412/08
- Artwork story
- “That's that side la Foa Creek. That Jurliwal hill that one. That side on top, all along like that. They used to go hunting for gerreyiny [tree sugarbag]. They bin always cut 'im for ceremony for young man, put 'im la coolamon. They bin always bury 'im la sand leave 'im there and get 'im more all the way. They bin always hunting all the way. All the women go down this way this side [left] of that sharp hill, make a dinner camp. They bin say ‘we bin have 'im too much gerriyiny and we bin really want what's a name, something else to eat,' they bin feel like something else. Jawunarrin, gardiya [white people] call that place Horse Creek. They bin make a dinner camp. Dumbun that gap when you go there [between the two red sections]. 'Marra yarrudja [let's go].' Garrjany [water lilly], they bin go get 'im bad that garrjany now la water. They get a round fruit off the bottom of that vine. They dive in la water, feel around 'round that garrjany vine. Get 'im big mob, chuck 'im out. They go pull 'em out and they bin go gungkun bad. Gungkun ngurrayidbe garrjany jang berrani [They cooked the water lily bulbs in an earth oven and ate them]. Marrarn nyaliny girlib berrayin. [They took the food and again walked off]. 'Marra marra yarrudja, [let's go], not enough for people to feed 'em up la ceremony'. They bin go cut 'im more now. Ngulngangany [their husbands] burn that grass looking for them women. They bin finish cutting [sugarbag]. Ngurriyama barawurrum, meeting place for ceremony now. They bring them all the young man, they bin have 'im that sugarbag from alabad and manthe [bless them with a smoking ceremony] them. Kid not allowed to eat that sugarbag from coolamon that gugbem [forbidden] for young man. This painting now, story for lawug-garri wumberrangbende Ngarrangkarni. [when they used to cut sugarbag in the dreaming]. Binkany, minyjarra they bin manthe alabad now.” This Ngarrangkarni story tells of a group of women gathering food for a ceremony. They first cut tree sugarbag or gerreyiny. A small native bee makes this honey inside the hollow branches of certain trees. When the entrance to the hive is found the limb is cut off and the honey extracted with long straight gunja (kapok) sƟcks. The women collected the honey in coolamons and wrapped and buried it along the way as their coolamons were filled up. The women became hungry after eating only sugarbag as they walked so they stopped to eat. The place where they stopped is called Jawunarrin. The other food to be collected for ceremony was garrjany, water lily tubers. The round edible 'fruit ' grows underwater along the stem of the lily in bunches. After cooking the waterlilies, the women decided they still did not have enough food to feed everyone at the ceremony and set off to collect more. Thomas points out that food gathering was extremely labour-intensive work for Gija people living traditionally. Meanwhile, the women's husbands were looking for them, burning grass to signal to the women. Thomas says that the men brought the young men to the barawurrum, a ring of clear ground in which ceremonies were conducted where they ate garrjany, minyjarra (black plums) and binkany (sugarleaf). The adults then conducted a smoking ceremony with the young men. Sugarbag, Thomas says, was forbidden to young men and children.