LIMMEN BIGHT RIVER COUNTRY, 1994

Part 2: Important Aboriginal Art
Melbourne
28 November 2012
159

GINGER RILEY MUNDUWALAWALA

(c.1936 - 2002)
LIMMEN BIGHT RIVER COUNTRY, 1994

synthetic polymer paint on cardboard

57.0 x 69.0 cm

signed lower centre: GINGER RILEY

Estimate: 
$6,000 - 8,000
Sold for $6,600 (inc. BP) in Auction 27 - 28 November 2012, Melbourne
Provenance

Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne (cat. AK2304)
Private collection, New South Wales

Catalogue text

This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Alcaston Gallery which states: 'Ginger Riley Munduwalawala believes he is a direct descendant of the first man and that the world as he knows it commenced at the Four Archers. His position in his known world is confirmed by ancestral myths and legends which illustrate Munduwalawala's lineal connection and ritual title to his mother's country - the land around the Four Archers which are hills near the mouth of the Limmen Bight River in South East Arnhem Land.

The white breasted sea eagle, Ngak Ngak, is often shown singly or as a repeated image; he acts as a sentinel looking around Munduwalawala's mother's country.

Munduwalawala believes his country is inhabited by totemic beings in the form of snakes, birds and ancestral people. Past and present integrate. The ceremonies as they are performed and explained establish his kinship with his country. Munduwalawala treats his totems, in the western sense, as heraldic devices. His stories are his, but the written interpretation is ours. He holds copyright over his images - his cultural property.'