NGUKURR Artists of the Rock Country | Mitchell Fine Art

NGUKURR | Artists of the Rock Country 31 May – 18 June 2022

Roper River Mission, 1938. Image: Library and Archives NT

This body of work highlights the extraordinary natural talent of the first wave of contemporary artists from the remote community of Ngukurr.

Perched on the side of an escarpment overlooking the Roper River, Ngukurr lies on the extreme edge of south east Arnhem Land. It is an area of spectacular beauty, rich in flora and fauna with an ecology that has been largely unaffected by the outside world.

Cut off during the wet season for extended periods due to flooding, and a river prone to breaking its banks after the torrential monsoon rains, the various language groups that populate this community have developed an artform unique to this region. A combination of its dark colonial history and its breathtaking landscape have resulted in an aesthetic unparalleled not only aboriginal art but more broadly across contemporary Australian art.

‘Ngukurr, Artists of the Rock Country’ is a snapshot into the works of five of the most important artists that were amongst the first to start painting in acrylics. Gertie Huddleston, Angelina George, Eva Rogers, Djambu Barra Barra and Barney Ellaga. ‘Rock Country’ refers to some of the extraordinary natural formations that are scattered throughout this area.

Ngukurr, 1987. Image: Rene Mitchell

The unique art that is produced in this region is bright, bold, highly coloured, and varies from apparent simplicity to some of the most complex compositions seen in Aboriginal art. Their colourful palette and innocent, playful approach to both landscape and figurative painting is an incredibly deceptive first impression when viewing these works. Their untrained approach to abstraction, composition and colour theory is the single most important contributing factor that has resulted in this distinct aesthetic.

Established in 1908 by the Church Missionary Society, the Roper River Mission became the home to nine different language groups from the broader area, from further north deep into north east Arnhem Land, south to Limmen Bight and beyond, and west to as far as what is now the Stuart Highway. These groups were the Mara, Wandarang, Alawa, Manggarai, Ritharrngu, Ngandi, Rembarrnga, Nunggubuya, and the Ngalakan.

It was established as a result of extreme conflict between early pastoral settlers and the Indigenous peoples whose land was being forcibly taken. The Roper River Mission became a safe haven for those who were dispossessed and victims of genocide.

The artworks featured in ‘Ngukurr, Artists of the Rock Country’ have been held in private collections over the past two decades.

Mike Mitchell, Gallery Director

Gertie Huddleston (1945–2013) started painting in 1993, 6 years after the initial painting workshops of 1987. Gertie was a practicing Christian who also held firmly to the traditional cultural beliefs and knowledge systems.

Her story of walking between two worlds is reflected in her art. They represent an Aboriginal world view as well as a Christian one.

Her paintings are an intricate, busy, map like narrative depicting different detailed landscape scenes. Multiple layers show rocks, hills, and local flora and fauna. Her paintings reflect her childhood life, the teachings of the missionaries, the changing seasons, the wildflowers and the dreaming stories.

Image: Mike Mitchell

Gertie Huddleston Ngukurr Gardens A2468 2002 87 x 127 cm acrylic on canvas

Gertie Huddleston Ngukurr Gardens A3578 2003 66 x 128 cm acrylic on canvas

Gertie Huddleston Ngukurr Gardens A3443 2003 86 x 127 cm acrylic on canvas

Gertie Huddleston Ngukurr Gardens A3178 2003 128 x 270 cm acrylic on canvas

Gertie Huddleston Ngukurr Gardens A3366 2003 59 x 87 cm acrylic on canvas

Gertie Huddleston Ngukurr Gardens A3456 2003 59 x 87 cm acrylic on canvas

Gertie Huddleston Ngukurr Gardens A3488 2003 59 x 86 cm acrylic on canvas

Gertie Huddleston Ngukurr Gardens A3487 2003 59 x 87 cm acrylic on canvas

Barney Ellaga (1941–2015) was a senior law man and custodian of the Alawa language group in Central Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. He had unsurpassed, intimate knowledge of his traditional homelands and it is this subject, ‘Alawa Country’ and the creation stories associated with it, that his work most represents.

Barney Ellaga was the Tjungai or cultural policeman for the Alawa people. His position was to ensure cultural maintenance and adherence to cultural law associated with ceremony and traditional practices. He is considered the last of the lawmen for his people. The knowledge and position within the group is passed from father to son, or alternatively to another that has been through the highest echelons of ceremony. As his sons predeceased him and there was no one to pass this knowledge on to, a tradition dating back through the millennia died with him.

Image: Mike Mitchell

Image: Mike Mitchell

“This place is called “Walgundu”, all the white fellas call it St Vidgeons. The blue one is the water hole. Biggest water. The black one is a cave next to it. Big fish call Lambun made this country back in Dreamtime. When the fish made this country the old people used it to live in that cave. Really big cave, they lived there all the time, hunting & fishing. All that stuff. They made fishing line from grass or else they speared them.

Anyway two young boys and their girlfriends took off in the bush and cut down the biggest tree looking for tucker. Inside that big hollow tree, they found a lot of baby snakes. Babies from the rainbow serpent. Well they made a big stone oven and called all them people down to have a feed. The young boys didn’t tell them what they were eating.

A real big wind, willy willy, started up and was heading towards that mob. Those young ones took off to another cave on the other side of the hills and hid there. They were frightened. That big wind it was the rainbow snake and it came and stopped on top of that stone oven.

It threw the fire everywhere and killed all these people and blew them into the water. Only them young ones stayed alive, hiding in the cave. Then the fire came looking for them in the cave. It got em’ later on. And inside that cave now the walls are all really red, red from the fire. They learnt the lesson real hard way those people. They weren’t looking after their land. Not looking after their culture. Real silly buggers them mob.” Barney Ellaga, 2003

Barney Ellaga Walgundu A4969 2004 200 x 300 cm acrylic on linen

Barney Ellaga Wurramurra A4039 2004 91 x 149 cm acrylic on linen

“This is my mother’s country, near Hodgson Downs called Hamilton Lagoon. My mother is the king brown snake. This is all that Murrungun mob’s area. It’s that desert country.” Barney Ellaga, 2004

Barney Ellaga Lulgu Lulgu A3521 2003 69 x 128 cm acrylic on linen

“Further up from that island called Yumbuluy on the Minimere river is this rockhole. This is the country for all the Burtal Clan. Those rocks is that old man Lulgu Lulgu. The white part on the rock is his hair. If you look under the water you can see that white cloud on the rock underneath the water.” Barney Ellaga, 2003

Barney Ellaga Wungurinji A3517 2003 86 x 128 cm acrylic on linen

“That’s three rocks, big story about Buyo Buyo, the quiet snake. That’s in the desert, just dry country.” Barney Ellaga, 2003

Barney Ellaga Walgundu A3930 2004 76 x 101 cm acrylic on linen

“This is the story about Walgundu or in Mununga language (white man) its called St Vidgeons area. The people were cutting down all the big trees and killing all them little snakes to eat them. They didn’t know it was the kids of that rainbow snake. Well that rainbow snake made big willy willy and he sent it to them people, Alawa, Mara people and Eliyirr mob (they all finished now, they don't exist anymore that Eliyirr mob). They were all sitting around the stone oven cooking them little snakes. Well that willy willy blew all them people into a big cave and hurt’ them all up. All them bones were piled up more bigger than your head, but all them tourist mob took ‘em away. Don’t know why, that’s all our ancestors bones. Maybe for money. Make me really sad, inside you know.

Still really important for us you know, sacred country for us mob.” Barney Ellaga 2004

Angelina George Bush Flowers A3035 2002 54 x 60 cm acrylic on canvas

Angelina George (1937–2014) spent her early life at the Roper River Mission near what is now Ngukurr. She commenced painting after watching her sisters (the Joshua sisters) for several years. With no formal art education, she claimed to have learned purely through observation. As a child Angelina developed a strong respect for the traditional and Christian religious learnings that were to inform her young life. In adulthood she adhered to these learnings and her paintings followed strict cultural restrictions passed on to her by elders.

These prerequisites to artistic life formed Angelina’s creative self. Unlike many of her contemporaries, Angelina had moved her work wholly into the realm of innovation and imagination. Her love of country, of intense beauty of nature, is deeply imbedded in the vibrant landscapes all the while not betraying specific sites.

She hails from an incredibly artistic family. She is the sister of acclaimed artists Gertie Huddleston, Eva Rodgers, Dinah Garadji and Betty Roberts, and is the mother of renowned Aboriginal Actor Tom E. Lewis.

Angelina George Bush Flowers A2599 2002 127 x 79 cm acrylic on canvas

Angelina George Bush Flowers A3218 2003 127 x 88 cm acrylic on canvas

Angelina George Bush Flowers A3117 2002 128 x 79 cm acrylic on canvas

Djambu Barra Barra Devil Devil Man MK18285 1995 127 x 84 cm acrylic on canvas

Djambu Barra Barra (1946–2005) was amongst the first to take up this style of painting in Ngukurr. A Wagilak man, his knowledge of custom and tradition saw him become the primary ‘ceremony man’ in the region. His ceremonial knowledge informed all aspects of his life and art.

Here he has painted ‘Devil Devil’. It is a term used to reference a number of spirit entities. In this instance he has depicted the Mokuy ‘Dhuwalpara’, the spirit that was the first to establish the ancestral homeland of the Wagilak at Ngilipidji, around 200 kilometres north-east of Ngukurr.

Djambu Barra Barra Devil Devil Man MK18286 1995 124 x 82.5 cm acrylic on canvas

Barra Barra was known to represent Mokuy in various manifestations. He could be ‘Dead Devil Devil’, ‘Hunting Devil Devil’, ‘Fighting Devil Devil’, and ‘Crippled Devil Devil’. These depict him at various stages or times of his ancestral journey.

These two paintings show Dhuwalpara as ‘Fighting Devil Devil’. He is portrayed surrounded by his spears, woomeras and axes. He has blades protruding from his knees, elbows and hips, and he has clawed fingers and toes.

Andrew Robertson Untitled MK18269 2000 59 x 126 cm acrylic on linen

Eva Rodgers Bush Flowers A3230 2003 132 x 95 cm acrylic on canvas

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