Transformations: early bark paintings from Arnhem Land
January 2014
As in other parts of Australia, painting on bark has been a long-standing activity for Aboriginal people across Arnhem Land in northern Australia.
Bark was used as a surface to depict elements of visual iconography long before anthropologist Baldwin Spencer visited Gunbalanya in 1911–12 and collected for the (then) National Museum of Victoria the bark shelter sheets that were painted on their underside with ochre designs.
It was through the medium of bark painting that Yolngu statesmen from Central, Northeastern and Eastern Arnhem Land chose to record their sacred madayin minytji (ancestral body painting designs) for anthropologist Professor Donald Thomson in 1935–37 and 1941–42. Thomson went to Arnhem Land to meet with clan leaders to broker a peaceful solution to the escalation of violence between Yolngu and outsiders. Almost immediately, his sympathetic approach and keen interest in Yolngu culture was met with an engaging and pro-active response.
Only a few days after their first meeting, the important warrior Wonggu Mununggurr, leader of the Djapu clan, painted a sheet of bark with designs relating to various clans in order to instruct Thomson about clan relationships and responsibilities across the region.
Clearly Yolngu regarded painting as an effective means of intercultural communication; by painting for Thomson Yolngu were teaching him, and by extension other outsiders, about the complexity, value and currency of their culture. During the years Thomson lived among Yolngu, they transcribed their clan’s madayin minytji — normally painted onto the bodies of men, objects, deceased people or coffins within the context of ceremony — onto large bark sheets.
Literal evocations of enduring ancestral power and presence, these designs define identity and directly connect clan members to their homelands. As a means of communication, they were therefore rich visual expressions of the complex belief systems that underwrite Yolngu culture. Conscious of their profound significance, Thomson brought the paintings to Melbourne.
Today these remarkable works are held in the Donald Thomson Collection under the joint custodianship of the University of Melbourne and Museum Victoria. They are the primary examples of an art medium used to share knowledge and achieve understanding between Yolngu and Balanda (non-Yolngu people) at a crucial time of cultural change in Arnhem Land. This drive to engage and educate through art has continued, and Yolngu bark painting has evolved to become one of the most recognisable genres of Aboriginal art in the world.
Transformations: early bark paintings from Arnhem Land provides a rare opportunity to view these foundational, and spectacular, works of art.
Particularly striking is the format of the composition of these works, as they variously depict madayin minytji as it would have appeared on the shoulders, torso and thighs of the body. The inclusion of the shoulder and leg elements of the design indicates the literalness with which artists translated designs from a ceremonial to an educational context. These striking elements would soon become redundant; artists quickly began to respond to the bark medium with inventiveness, refining compositions to include only the square or rectangular chest section of the body painting. The flat surface and larger scale of the bark sheet enabled artists to enrich grand narratives by adding figurative elements and multiple references, and, in the decades that have followed, approaches to painting continues to evolve.
The dazzling optical effect of madayin minytji is linked to the enduring power of ancestor beings. Donald Thomson first noted the Yolngu concept of biryun in his 1937 fieldnotes, and likened it to a sparkle or shine, or the flash of anger in someone’s eyes. Anthropologist Professor Howard Morphy has since written about the importance of biryun within Yolngu aesthetics. Designed to affect the senses, the repetitive fine line work, or rarrk, and the predominance of white ochre in the designs creates a bright shimmer that is evidence of marr or ancestral power.
These impressive paintings are strikingly beautiful depictions of the richness of Yolngu culture, and demonstrate artists’ refined skill in using ochre on bark to depict intricate designs. As early evidence of the willingness and desire Yolngu have to communicate to outsiders the systems of knowledge at the core of their culture—a motivation that remains paramount for artists today—these paintings are remarkable historical objects. As works of art, they are the jewels in the crown of an ever-evolving Yolngu painting tradition.
Joanna Bosse, Curator, the Ian Potter Museum of Art Transformations: early bark paintings from Arnhem Land
The Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne. Continues until February 23
Image
1. Wilingarr narra 2, attributed to Makani Wilingarr. Ngarra minytji (Ngarra ceremony design) c. 1937, natural pigments of bark, 139 x 113.5 cm. The Donald Thomson Collection, the University of Melbourne and Museum Victoria / Photo: Courtesy Jimmy Burinyila, Ramingining
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