Jimmy Njiminjuma (1945 - 2004)

WAKWAK, 2003

natural earth pigments with PVC fixative on stringybark (Eucalyptus tetradonta)

169.0 x 50.0 cm (irregular)

bears inscription verso: artist's name, title, medium, size and Maningrida Arts and Culture cat. 5299/03

Maningrida Arts and Culture, Maningrida, Northern Territory
Collection of James Smeaton, Melbourne

Wakwak (Crow Dreaming Site), 2000, natural pigments on eucalyptus bark, 105.5 x 61.0 cm, in the collection of The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Maningrida Arts and Culture which states:

‘In this painting Njiminjuma has depicted a sacred site at ‘Kurrurldul’, his outstation south of Maningrida. The ‘rarrk’, or abstract crosshatching, on this work represents the design for the crow totem ancestor called ‘Djimarr’. Today this being exists in the form of a rock, which is permanently submerged at the bottom of Kurrurldul Creek. The ‘Djimarr’ rock in the stream at Kurrurldul is said to move around and call out in a soft hooting tone at night. Both the stone itself and the area around it are considered sacred. The imagery represents the crow in three different domains. Most simply it is the black crow ‘wak wak’ and the ancestral form of this bird called djimarr. At the same time, the image represents the rock mentioned above, which is the final transmutation of the dreaming ancestor ‘Djimarr’. Finally, the pattern used here is also the crow design used in the sacred ‘Mardayin’ ceremony, which is a large regional patri­moiety ceremony now rarely conducted in central and eastern Arnhem Iand.’