Fine Art Gallery

Cooee Aboriginal Art in association with Aboriginal Fine Arts Gallery Darwin,NT Present Janet Long Nakamarra - Ngapa Dreaming - Water March 10 - April 2 2005 Introduction Aboriginal women have their own ceremonies in which a series of song and dance cycles tell of the Ancestral Beings who walked the earth teaching women's law and ceremony to isolated groups living throughout the desert. Each tribe has its own set of women ancestors with different stories, designs and dances, but most of the ceremonies have one theme common to all groups - that of food gathering as the most important part of women's lives. Men also can depict women's dreamings, but they frown on women painting men's ceremonies. The song and dance cycles mainly revolve around bush tucker, such as yam, banana, wild tomato, plum, onions, honey ants, witchetty grubs, nuts and berries. In their paintings they also depict the implements they use, including digging sticks, grinding stones, and coolamons for carrying. The abstract figures they show are the same as those painted by men. For example, a 'U' shape represents a person or groups of people sitting down with crossed legs. A larger 'U' indicates a windbreak. Concentric circles can represent a campsite, stone, waterhole or fire. The exact imprint of human feet or animal paws depicts tracks of humans, emus, possums, kangaroos etc. During the ceremonies the women will paint their bodies and breasts in various designs which represent the particular ceremony being performed. Mostly these are curved or straight lines, including circles and squares. Water Dreaming (Ngapa) The lines represent the flowing of water at Warntaparri where the people did the dancing of the rain. They painted their body with paint (white) and sat and sang the song of the hailstones. Thunder clouds rose in the distant, people saw the clouds and sought shelters because of the rain. They knew the rain was big and strong. When it came closer they all stayed in the shelter and waited till it rained. It rained and rained until everything was flooded then it made rivers, billabongs, lagoons etc and made streams and soakage's. They lived next to the soakage for one month, until the soakage dried up, and then they would move to another soakage. In the dry the people would dig a hole and cover it with plants and the next morning there would be clean drinking water in there. (As told by Janet)