Mannguk Djang - Diarrhoea Dreaming, 1995

natural earth pigments on paper

103 x 153 cm

$6,000

Provenance: The Artist Neil McLeod Fine Arts, Dandenong, Vic Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW
Artwork story: This is a Dreaming associated with a line of rounded hills to the north of the Oenpelli-Maningrida road. These are a Mannguk Djang (Diarrhoea Dreaming) site, and no-one climbs these hills for fear of being afflicted by the illness. The narrative relates to the deaths of two Ancestral sisters, both pregnant, who accidentally consumed highly toxic cycad berries and drank salty water. As a result they died very nasty deaths involving dysentery and vomiting (we’ve been spared the vomiting in this artwork – the specific visual information that the artist who is the Dreaming owner chooses to disclose is at his or her discretion). Nganjmirra’s narrative operates on several levels. The Diarrhoea Dreaming encapsulates deep knowledge of the properties and location of local flora (ethno-botany). It also has a didactic function, that of instructing others about the toxicity of these berries, which is in this case a matter of life and death. Finally, it offers a commentary on the fatally unwise actions of the two sisters, whose intemperate behaviour led to their premature deaths, and to the deaths of their unborn children. Thus the sisters act as “negative exemplars”, as discussed in part two of this series. In common with other Dreaming narratives, Nganjmirra’s work has a dimension that cannot be shared with just anybody.

Click to enlarge

b. 1955

natural earth pigments on paper

103 x 153 cm

$6,000

Provenance: The Artist Neil McLeod Fine Arts, Dandenong, Vic Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW
Artwork story: This is a Dreaming associated with a line of rounded hills to the north of the Oenpelli-Maningrida road. These are a Mannguk Djang (Diarrhoea Dreaming) site, and no-one climbs these hills for fear of being afflicted by the illness. The narrative relates to the deaths of two Ancestral sisters, both pregnant, who accidentally consumed highly toxic cycad berries and drank salty water. As a result they died very nasty deaths involving dysentery and vomiting (we’ve been spared the vomiting in this artwork – the specific visual information that the artist who is the Dreaming owner chooses to disclose is at his or her discretion). Nganjmirra’s narrative operates on several levels. The Diarrhoea Dreaming encapsulates deep knowledge of the properties and location of local flora (ethno-botany). It also has a didactic function, that of instructing others about the toxicity of these berries, which is in this case a matter of life and death. Finally, it offers a commentary on the fatally unwise actions of the two sisters, whose intemperate behaviour led to their premature deaths, and to the deaths of their unborn children. Thus the sisters act as “negative exemplars”, as discussed in part two of this series. In common with other Dreaming narratives, Nganjmirra’s work has a dimension that cannot be shared with just anybody.