Mimih Spirit, John Mawurndjul
Wood
Provenance: Karen Brown Gallery, Darwin.
Kuninjku bark painter and sculptor, John Mawurndjul is a leading artist and has been instrumental in educating the next generation of young painters in his style. His youth was spent in the seasonal camps in the western Arnhem Land with only limited contact with non-aboriginal people. Mawurndjul’s early works were small barks of natural species and Dreaming beings, before moving into larger scale bark and carved works highlighting scared sites and Kuninikju culture. He is celebrated for his mastery of rarrk, the fine cross hatching style, practised by Kuninikju painters for generations. In 2016 he won the bark painting prize at the Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award (1).
Mimih spirits only live in the rock country, staying there always. When the wind picks up they run inside the rocks to hide, as their necks would break in the wind and they would die. When we make these carvings we represent that famous mimih story about the Wardbukkarra-wardbukkarra spirits. They are mimih beings but the Wardbukkarra, they sing songs and they dance. There are bones there at Dilebang; they are those of the mimih. The mimih are there in the rock country and they sing when they come out. They carry shovel-nosed spears. The spear points are made from stone and called ‘lawk’. This is the history story that has been handed down. There are also duwa moiety people who died there and their bones must not be interfered with or stolen. They must remain there forever, as they are Djang, a sacred place.