Marra country, south of Arnhem Land, was once inhabited by the Marra tribe. However, cattlemen in the 1800s and missionaries coerced the tribe off its land and across the Roper River into Arnhem Land, Normand said.

Roper River Mission was established in 1908 by the Church Missionary Society at Mirlinbarrwarr. It included a school and dormitories for Aboriginal children aged 5 to 18 years.

“What has happened is that over the last 150 years white people have assumed that the area doesn’t really have any relationship to the Ngukurr people,” Normand said.

With his book he hopes “to focus attention on the fact that the people of Ngukurr still have really strong links to that land, and they always have and they always will”.

Ngukurr, population 1500, is just 100 metres on the other side of the river from Marra country. Its people continue to use it for fishing and hunting, and retain guardianship over its water holes and other sacred places.

Normand’s book, 13 years in the making, charts the life and work of Maureen Marrangulu Thompson, an artist he met during his stay in Ngukurr, when he taught art and sport.