Ginger Riley Munduwalawala (c.1936 - 2002)

Limmen Bight Country, 1990

synthetic polymer paint on plywood

46.5 x 54.0 cm (irregular)
55.0 x 62.4 cm (frame)

bears inscription on frame verso: Alcaston Gallery cat. AK809

Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
Private collection, Melbourne

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 Arches. 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 Arches which are hills near the mouth of the Limmen Bight River in South East Arnhemland.

The Four Arches were formed by the snake Bandian. This snake, a king brown snake, appears in various guises, sometimes as two snakes, is known as Garimala or Kurra Murra and undergoing transformation becomes Wawalu, the Rainbow Serpent.

The 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.
The written story is not his.’