Arnhem Land sister artists record fragile abundance of Top End wet season in collection of paintings

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Food,Abundance,Wet Season

The vibrancy of the Top End wet season is captured in a collection of paintings by a pair of sisters from a remote community near the southern edge of Arnhem Land.

Crouched by a billabong near the southern edge of Arnhem Land , Margaret Duncan has her whole arm down a crab hole."We could eat it, or we could use it as bait."Margaret's sister, Rhonda, explains how they learned to hunt ducks here as kids.

Their intense vibrancy has developed a long way from what was possible when Margaret, who has been painting longer than her younger sister, first learned the skill growing up. Margaret says her work helps "take away the anger" that comes from the pressure of "living in two worlds". Aspects of her traditional culture that have been "taken away" can be preserved and celebrated in the paintings."In these modern days now, Aboriginal people are sort of down, you know? Like there's no-one to help to revive our culture," she says.

Las tu Olman en Olgaman, by Margaret Duncan, depicts the "last two ancestors who were roaming" on country around Urapunga.Sometime in the late 1970s, someone told her dad they had found bones in the bush that might have been their ancestors'.They recall moments of tension when Margaret was first teaching Rhonda how to weave baskets from pandanus.Rhonda was sometimes frustrated.But the sisters have also pulled closer through their work and used it to process grief.

Food Abundance Wet Season Traditional Culture Hunting Painting Memory Dreaming Arnhem Land Margaret Duncan Rhonda Duncan Artist Sisters From Arnhem Land

 

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