Mimi with dilly bag, woomera, two spears, stone axe by Kim Bangalang 31x21 WOP10

Curators Note: The ochre on this work on paper has unfortunately been slightly smudged and this is reflected in the special price offered. It is still a delightful piece.

"Mimi with dilly bag, woomera, two spears, stone axe" by Kim Bangalang features a classic hunting theme. The Mimi are tall, thin beings that live in the rocky ridges of northern Australia as spirits. Before the coming of Aboriginal people they had human forms. When Aboriginal people first came to northern Australia, the Mimi taught them how to hunt and cook kangaroos and other animals.

Kim Bangalang is from a large family of artists from Gunbalanya (Oenpelli), which is located some 330 kilometres east of Darwin on the eastern border of Kakadu National Park. The area is bound by the East Alligator, the Gumaderr, and the Liverpool Rivers which all feed into the Van Diemen Gulf. The landscape is a network of grassland, swamps and billabongs which are dotted with pink and lilac water lilies. A sandstone plateau rises up to 200 metres above the plain. Monsoonal weather between December and April causes the plains to flood, and the area is accessible only by air. To the east and west of Gunbalanya extends the rocky Arnhem Land escarpment, which has been sculpted into dramatic caves and chasms over many centuries of wind and rain.

This area is rich in a variety of fish, bird-life and game (including emu, kangaroo, possum, flying fox, echidna, goanna), making it highly habitable for humans, and has been continuously occupied since the first Aboriginals came to northern Australia.

Kim worked with natural ochres on stringy bark and on artists quality arches paper.