Description

Elyssa Djurududuku Cameron

• Language group: Bininj-Kunwok
• Community: Maningrida, NT

Arnhem Land art is part of the oldest continuous art tradition in the world. Ancestors of today’s artists have been painting the rock walls of West and Central Arnhem Land for tens of thousands of years. The traditional palette of white, red, yellow and black comes from the ochre that naturally occurs in the region, although contemporary artists sometimes choose to paint in acrylics as well. The artists famously paint using either the traditional rarrk cross-hatching technique, or the more contemporary and complex cross hatching technique which has been adapted from ceremonial painting. These lines are carefully painted using a manyilk, which is a piece of sedge grass shaved down until only a few fibres remain.