JACK NAWILIL

Mayali and Rembarrnga artist Kamarrang Jack Nawilil is a senior member of the Balngarra clan, who lives and works at Bolkjdam, an outstation located near Maningrida community in central Arnhem Land. A song man and cultural leader, he works across painting on bark, carved sculpture and ceremonial objects such as mularra (morning star poles), mako (didgeridoo), lorrkkon (hollow logs) and his unique spirit poles – made from paperbark, feathers, native beeswax and handspun bark fibre string.

Common subjects of his work include representations of significant spirit beings, such as wyarra (skeleton), wurum (fish-increasing) and namorrodo (profane) spirits, and important ancestors, including the female creator ancestor Ngalkodjek who travelled from Elcho Island in the East.

The narratives represented in Nawilil’s artworks are extremely complex and often antithetical to Western knowledge systems. His artworks reference and manifest multiple places, clans and events that span vast distances and timeframes. To audiences who are not initiated and socialised in bininj (Aboriginal) cultural practices and history, the true and complete meanings of these artworks cannot be fully grasped. His artworks challenge the viewer to grapple with a different way of being in, and understanding, the world.

Nawilil won the Wandjuk Marika 3D Award of the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2012, for a spirit pole representing the story of Namorrodddo and made from paperbark, handmade bush string, pigments, beeswax and feathers

American collector and donor, the late Will Owen who wrote a well-read blog entitled Australian Aboriginal Art & Culture: An American Eye described Nawilil’s winning work:

“The winning work has the same sense or aura of an almost unmediated ceremonial object, the roughness of its wrapped and painted surfaces an index of the spirit’s strength. Namorroddo, associated with the shooting star is a fearful presence in the night and it takes a powerful medicine man to protect against him. Any object that appears in the NATSIAA is obviously an object of engagement with the marketplace, but Nawilil’s sculpture seem to arrive at the agora straight from some place very deep in the bush and the psyche; powerful and primal, Namorroddo is a simple and disturbing creation.”

Jack Nawilil’s work is held in public and private collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, the Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. He has exhibited with leading commercial galleries around Australia and overseas for nearly four decades.

This work is called Buya Male which is specific to Nawilil’s clan, Balngarra.

The artist explains, “It’s not from today, long long long time, when I’ve been little boy. My father been learn me. This one travelled from the east side and stopped at Kinoedjanga, my country”. Long lengths of sting are made by hand, wrapped around a paperbark core and painted with natural ochres. This work is decorated with feathers from parrot and ibis and painted with the man-ngalingj (root vegetable, ‘bush potato’) design.

Namorrorddo is a profane spirit sometimes called a ‘bad angel’ in Aboriginal English. The Namorrorddo is a yirridjdja moiety being associated with the Yabbadurruwa regional cult ceremony.

Namorrorddo sits upon a rock and is usually painted with long claw like hands and feet. Sometimes spurs protrude from the elbows somewhat like those of a flying fox. Namorrorddo carries light, which emanates from his head. The shooting stars seen at night are Namorrorddo travelling across the night sky. He whistles an eerie cry, which Aboriginal people say they can hear at night from time to time. Namorrorddo is feared as an evil being who attacks humans by clubbing them with his fighting stick or miyarrul. Namorrorddo is also sometimes depicted carrying bamboo spears and a spear thrower. Namorrorddo is a major dreaming totem for the Kardbam clan. There are a few examples of images of Namorrorddo painted in rock shelters in the Mann and Liverpool Rivers district.

In 2012 Nawilil won the Wandjuk Marika 3D Award of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award with a similar spirit pole, of which the judges commented: “ Namorroddo embodies a sense of mysticism and draws in the viewer with its remarkable finesse of execution. This ceremony pole deals with that which is undisclosed, and yet evokes a strong masculine presence. Namorroddo is the Lightning Man, an ancestral figure who causes mischief at night, creating violent electrical lightning storms across the top end. This idea is conveyed by Nawilil’s palette of midnight purple, charcoal black, and bold patches of white that allude to body-paint. Close inspection reveals windings of handmade twine coiled around the pole; the flourish of two feather-tipped strings complement and add further mystery to the grave aesthetic of the piece” the grave aesthetic of the piece.”

Namorrorddo is a profane spirit sometimes called a ‘bad angel’ in Aboriginal English. The Namorrorddo is a yirridjdja moiety being associated with the Yabbadurruwa regional cult ceremony.

Namorrorddo sits upon a rock and is usually painted with long claw like hands and feet. Sometimes spurs protrude from the elbows somewhat like those of a flying fox. Namorrorddo carries light, which emanates from his head. The shooting stars seen at night are Namorrorddo travelling across the night sky. He whistles an eerie cry, which Aboriginal people say they can hear at night from time to time. Namorrorddo is feared as an evil being who attacks humans by clubbing them with his fighting stick or miyarrul. Namorrorddo is also sometimes depicted carrying bamboo spears and a spear thrower. Namorrorddo is a major dreaming totem for the Kardbam clan. There are a few examples of images of Namorrorddo painted in rock shelters in the Mann and Liverpool Rivers district.

In 2012 Nawilil won the Wandjuk Marika 3D Award of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award with a similar spirit pole, of which the judges commented: “ Namorroddo embodies a sense of mysticism and draws in the viewer with its remarkable finesse of execution. This ceremony pole deals with that which is undisclosed, and yet evokes a strong masculine presence. Namorroddo is the Lightning Man, an ancestral figure who causes mischief at night, creating violent electrical lightning storms across the top end. This idea is conveyed by Nawilil’s palette of midnight purple, charcoal black, and bold patches of white that allude to body-paint. Close inspection reveals windings of handmade twine coiled around the pole; the flourish of two feather-tipped strings complement and add further mystery to the grave aesthetic of the piece” the grave aesthetic of the piece.”

Transcription of text by Jack Nawilil about two ceremonial objects – Karlanj and Ngalkodjek. Transcribed by Murray Garde and Margaret Carew 2 & 5 December 2017. Notes by Margaret Carew on 5 Dec 2017. Note: The site Jack refers to as Koenoedjangka is in the Rembarrnga language. The ‘oe’ vowel sounds like the ‘ur’ in English ‘fur’.

“This one here, like ngaye ngakurrmeng, im my draw. This one here [ceremonial objects], I have drawn my own personal designs on them.This one Ngalkodjek.This one (is called) Ngalkodjek. (MG – note, that this is not the subsection term Ngalkodjok, rather the stem - kodjek is formative in the verb -kodjekmang ‘to abduct’ and may refer to a secret episode in the Nakorrkko story, the father and son cultural heroes for Bininj in western Arnhem Land).

“Daluk, im from Elcho im bin travelling.This represents a woman, she travelled (here) from Elcho Island, she is from Elcho, she was a woman indeed, shewent/travelled, this one and this one too.”

“Yoh. This one I made it, the design from Kinidjangka, the place where flying foxes live where the Nakorrkko passed through. I made that. I’ve made that story for you, that one of mine. I have put it there. You know that. You know what I’m talking about Bulanj (to Murray Garde).”

“Didjan, nane, dijan gama i bin travelling garra didjei, garra didjei. This one here, she is a woman who travelled this way, coming this way (to the west from north-east Arnhem Land). Im gona garra ebrijing. From Kunidjangka i bin make it. From Koenidjangka ngamarnbom en nani Koenidjangka ngamarnbom. En dijan Koenidjangka ngamarnbom. Nane now. She has many things. I made it, the one from Kinidjangka.“

“This design belongs to me. Like, I made it, and it should not be confused with a morning star pole, no, it is something different. they are separate indeed, these dreamings. It (an ancestral spirit) put it there. It is my totemic emblem. It is my ancestral design of the ancestral beings, indeed.”

Transcription of text by Jack Nawilil about two ceremonial objects – Karlanj and Ngalkodjek. Transcribed by Murray Garde and Margaret Carew 2 & 5 December 2017. Notes by Margaret Carew on 5 Dec 2017. Note: The site Jack refers to as Koenoedjangka is in the Rembarrnga language. The ‘oe’ vowel sounds like the ‘ur’ in English ‘fur’.

“This one here, like ngaye ngakurrmeng, im my draw. This one here [ceremonial objects], I have drawn my own personal designs on them.This one Ngalkodjek.This one (is called) Ngalkodjek. (MG – note, that this is not the subsection term Ngalkodjok, rather the stem - kodjek is formative in the verb -kodjekmang ‘to abduct’ and may refer to a secret episode in the Nakorrkko story, the father and son cultural heroes for Bininj in western Arnhem Land).

“Daluk, im from Elcho im bin travelling.This represents a woman, she travelled (here) from Elcho Island, she is from Elcho, she was a woman indeed, shewent/travelled, this one and this one too.”

“Yoh. This one I made it, the design from Kinidjangka, the place where flying foxes live where the Nakorrkko passed through. I made that. I’ve made that story for you, that one of mine. I have put it there. You know that. You know what I’m talking about Bulanj (to Murray Garde).”

“Didjan, nane, dijan gama i bin travelling garra didjei, garra didjei. This one here, she is a woman who travelled this way, coming this way (to the west from north-east Arnhem Land). Im gona garra ebrijing. From Kunidjangka i bin make it. From Koenidjangka ngamarnbom en nani Koenidjangka ngamarnbom. En dijan Koenidjangka ngamarnbom. Nane now. She has many things. I made it, the one from Kinidjangka.“

“This design belongs to me. Like, I made it, and it should not be confused with a morning star pole, no, it is something different. they are separate indeed, these dreamings. It (an ancestral spirit) put it there. It is my totemic emblem. It is my ancestral design of the ancestral beings, indeed.”