Kuninjku artist, Janet Marawarr, was born in 1962. She is a linocut and screenprint designer at Bábbarra Women’s Centre and an established bark painter with Maningrida Arts & Crafts. She regards textile design as an opportunity to work with colour and new methods to express her djang (ancestral creator stories).
In a video, made by the Centre for Australian Languages and Linguistics in association with Bábbarra Women’s Centre and The Batchelor Institute, Janet spoke about one of her recently completed textile designs, Kunkurra. She stated, “This is a story about the wind sacred totem, the wind and the lighting. The English word is ‘wind’ and un Kuninjku it’s ‘kunkurra’. In English we say ‘lightning’ and in Kuninjku we say ‘namarrkon’, in this story. Not just anyone can go to this place only the yirridja moiety can go. No duwa moiety people, no women, only men. I will tell a story about the wind sacred site. Women cannot go to that place, only men can go. When it rains, the lightning flashes, caused by the namarrkon being. No one is allowed to make a fire. Only when it dries up, that’s when they can make a fire, they can make campfires. This is the story I’m telling in my language, I’ll explain it. I’m telling you the story that I was told by my husband. He told me about that place, he explained it to me so now I understand. When our children were small we went there and he showed it to us. He told us the story about this place and explained all the details to us. This is a scared place no one can go there. He also told my older brother, he told him the story too and he put that into his memory and he holds on to it so that if now tells the story, he knows the details, relating to things from sacred ceremony and the secret area. It is a restricted place, no one can just go there, only those who have learnt the story. That’s all that’s my story I am telling.”
Janet has also featured as one of the emerging artists in a group exhibition, Báb-barra: Women’s Printing Culture at The Cross Art Projects (2017) [http://www.crossart.com.au/current-show].
Reference List:
Bábbarra Women’s Centre. “Janet Marawarr.” Bábbarra Women’s Centre. Last modified 2017. https://babbarra.com/artist/janet-marawarr/.
CALL Centre for Australian Languages and Linguistics. “Kunkurra: Janet Marawarr.” Centre for Australian Languages and Linguistics. Last modified 2017. https://call.batchelor.edu.au/film/kunkurra-janet-marawarr/.
- Writers:
-
emma_sheehan
- Date written:
- 2017
- Last updated:
- 2017
