Stringybark, 2025

This painting depicts a sacred site at ‘Kurrurldul’, an outstation south of Maningrida. The ‘rarrk’, or abstract crosshatching, on this work represents the design for the crow totem ancestor called ‘Djimarr’. Today this being exists in the form of a rock, which is permanently submerged at the bottom of Kurrurldul Creek. The ‘Djimarr’ rock in the stream at Kurrurldul is said to move around and call out in a soft hooting tone at night. Both the stone itself and the area around it are considered sacred. The imagery represents the rock mentioned above at the bottom of Kurrurldul creek, which is the final transmutation of the dreaming ancestor ‘Djimarr’. Finally, the pattern used here is also the crow design used in the sacred ‘Mardayin’ ceremony, which is a large regional patri-moiety ceremony now rarely conducted in central and eastern Arnhem Land.

Simone Namunjdja is part of the next generation of Kuninjku women artists forging dynamic artistic careers. Taught by watching her mother – artist Pamela Namunjdja – from a young age, Simone started creating her own artforms in 2022, initially learning to carve and paint Mimih spirit figures out of thin and delicate branches of Kurrajong, until gaining confidence to move onto bark painting and the larger sculptural forms of the Lorrkon (hollow log) a few years later. Simone uses a striking palette of black and white, much like her relation artist Susan Marawarr, and paints the ancestral dreaming stories that have been passed down through her family line, working from her home in Maningrida and often painting alongside other creative family members.