Dhuwarrwarr Marika - Makassan Swords and Long Knives - 187 x 75 cm - 744-21
Dhuwarrwarr Marika - Makassan Swords and Long Knives - 187 x 75 cm - 744-21
Artiste : Dhuwarrwarr Marika (1945)
Titre de l'œuvre : Makassan Swords and Long Knives
Pigments naturels sur écorce
Format : 187 x 75 cm
Provenance et certificat original : centre d'art aborigène de Yirrkala
Référence de la peinture : 744-21
© Photo & text : Aboriginal signature with the courtesy of the artist, & Buku-Larrngay Mulka.
Explication de l’œuvre :
“When the Makassan came, they tried to find the Aboriginal people at Melville Bay. The Yolngu wives and kids were asleep.
The men woke up and saw the boat. They thought it was the enemy and some Makassan jumped from their boat and swam to the shore to meet the Aboriginal people. They wanted to work with them. They explained to them about trepang and where they could find some trepang. They went and collected to show them. The Makassan showed them what to do, cooked them and dried them out, explained to them it’s good food and they paid the aboriginal people with swords, axes, material and tobacco. They invited the Makassan people to the camp and explained to them who they were and why they came because in their heart they were Yolgnu people. And the Makassan taught the Yolngu their song and traditions and the Yolngu taught the Makassan their culture and law and tradition.
This is the story and the painting from Dhuwarrwarr Marika, taught to me by my father when the Makassan came to Australia and learned about the Aboriginal people.”
Since the turn of the century the annual visitations of the Makassanese to the Top End shores of Australia were put to a stop by the South Australian Government. These sailors, gatherers of trepang from coastal waters, had for up to six centuries caught the seasonal winds back and forth from what is now known as Sulawesi.
Dhuwarrwarr’s father Mawalan Marika painted about these people in the 1940s and spoke some Makassan language. He always emphasised to her the importance of the relationship between Yolŋu and these allies. He was the leader of the Yirrkala people at the time of the coming of Europeans but never lost his fondness and respect for Makassans.