Basma Nulla, Barramundi, 220cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Basma Nulla
• Community - 
• Aboriginal Art Centre - Maningrida Arts and Culture
• Catalogue number - 1292-25
• Materials - Pandanus and bush cane with natural dyes
• Size(cm) - H220 W74
• Postage - Posted flat

Basma is a young weaving artist who lives at Ji-balbal outstation; about a 1 hour drive from Maningrida. Basma live at Ji-balbal all year even during the wet season when the outstation can get cut off from Maningrida township due to rising rivers. 

She was taught to weave by her aunts, senior and expert weavers Anniebell Marrngamarrnga and Dorothy Bunibuni . She has been given permission to weave Nawarlah (Brown River Stingray) and Yawkyawk which she weaves in pattern of bright and bold natural colour patterns.

An art movement that is striking, political and enduring: this is what contemporary artists in Maningrida and the surrounding homelands have built, powered by their ancestral connections to country and djang.

Ways of learning and schools of art in Arnhem Land are based around a system of passing knowledge and information on to others. The art here has its genesis in body design, rock art and cultural practices, in concert with more than 50 years of collaborations, travel and political action to retain ownership of country. Values and law are expressed through language, imagery, manikay (song), bunggul (dance), doloppo bim (bark painting), sculptures, and kun-madj (weaving) – the arts.

The artists’ transformation of djang into contemporary artistic expression has intrigued people around the world: art curators and collectors, and stars including Yoko Ono, Jane Campion, David Attenborough and Elton John. Pablo Picasso said of Yirawala’s paintings, ‘This is what I’ve been trying to achieve all my life.’

Yirawala (c.1897–1976) was a legendary Kuninjku leader, artist, land-rights activist and teacher, and his artwork was the first of any Indigenous artist to be collected by the National Gallery of Australia as part of a policy to represent in depth the most significant figures in Australian art.

Maningrida Arts & Culture is based on Kunibídji country in Arnhem Land in Australia’s Northern Territory. The area where artists live encompasses 7,000 square kilometres of land and sea, and over 100 clan estates, where people speak more than 12 distinct languages. Aboriginal people in this region are still on country, surviving and resilient because their country is the centre of their epistemology, their belief system, culture – djang.

Artists’ works from the larger Maningrida region can be seen in collections and institutions around the world. We work with museums, contemporary galleries and high-end retailers both nationally and internationally on projects throughout the year.

Text courtesy: Maningrida Arts and Culture