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Eileen Pascoe, Kunkaninj (Digging Stick)), 114x54cm
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  • Aboriginal Art by Eileen Pascoe, Kunkaninj (Digging Stick)), 114x54cm - ART ARK®
  • Aboriginal Art by Eileen Pascoe, Kunkaninj (Digging Stick)), 114x54cm - ART ARK®
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Aboriginal Art by Eileen Pascoe, Kunkaninj (Digging Stick)), 114x54cm - ART ARK®
Aboriginal Art by Eileen Pascoe, Kunkaninj (Digging Stick)), 114x54cm - ART ARK®

Eileen Pascoe, Kunkaninj (Digging Stick)), 114x54cm

$884.00

Original Work of Art (they all are!)

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  • Aboriginal Artist - Eileen Pascoe
  • Community - Maningrida
  • Homeland - 
  • Aboriginal Art Centre - Maningrida Arts
  • Catalogue number - 424-23
  • Materials - Earth pigments on stringybark
  • Size(cm) - H114 W54 D1 (irregular)
  • Orientation - As displayed
  • Postage variant - Delivered ready to hang off metal brace on reverse

Kunkaninj (digging stick) is used to dig for yams and for finding long-neck turtles, but is also an important Duwa moiety totemic ancestor. It shares the same songline as barlangu (shark) and wankurr (sacred Mardayin ceremonial dilly bag). Kunkarninj are the digging sticks that created the fresh water billabong known as Kœnœdjangka. Associated with this site are a small beetle called Nyork nyrok and fresh water weed Narrang Narrang with a small leaf and larger leaf variety.

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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