Waringarri Aboriginal Arts Centre - Minnie Lumai 'Yab-Yabbe-Geni-Nim' Silk Scarf (m/war012)
Scarf featuring original artwork, "Yab-yabbe-geni-nim," by Waringarri Aboriginal Arts Centre artist Minni Lumai.
MATERIALS: Silk Paj
DIMENSIONS: 176cm x 54cm
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Waringarri Aboriginal Arts is a living, growing art centre celebrating the uniqueness of Miriwoong cultural identity. Established in the 1980s, in the heart of Miriwoong country at Kununurra in the Kimberley region of northern Australia, Waringarri artists share the importance of their Country and Culture. Waringarri is the first wholly indigenous owned art centre established in Western Australia and one of the oldest continuously operating art centres in Australia supporting economic independence for artists and their community.
Minnie Lumai is named after a freshwater spring that gently bubbles with the sound of her name - lu-mai, lu-mai, lu-mai. Her art demonstrates an energy that is at once energetic and serene.
"In the early days I was a kid living at Newry Station. I looked after the goats and milked cows and I knew how to make the butter. After that I got married and went to Argyle Homestead. I worked there in the house. Old Sheeba taught me how to make bread and then I knew how to cook for the stock camp. We went to Lissadel. Next I came to Kununurra. I looked after my kids here. I didn't start painting until 2004. I had been watching all those people painting at the art centre - every morning I watched them and I asked my sister if I could come and paint. Now I come here and paint and I dance here too. My paintings are about the stories of my Country and culture - the way the land is from the dreaming and where we travel to hunt and fish." - Minni Lumai
This artwork relates to a key Ngarranggarni (dreaming) story for the Miriwoong and Gadjirrawoong peoples for the ownership of country around Kununurra and to the east in a place called Yab-yabbe-geni-nim.
The plains kangaroo (Jalangarnang) was a Miriwoong man and the hill kangaroo (Nyangood) was a Gadjirrawoong man. They had an argument about sugar bag (wild honey) which the plains kangaroo had hidden in the ridge. The two kangaroos began to fight and the beeswax was scattered across the hill [represented by the circle motifs in the painting]. 'You can see it now…. all the rocks', Jalangarnang told Nyangood. ‘This is not your place. This is Miriwoong country.’ So Nyangood followed the ridges back to his country.
This item is available in Store at Midland Junction Arts Centre and at Mundaring Arts Centre.
