Title
Bamugura
2016
Artist
Susan Balbunga
Australia
13 Jul 1953 –
Language groups: Burarra, Arnhem region, Warrawarra, Arnhem region
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Details
- Place where the work was made
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Milingimbi
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Central Arnhem Land
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Northern Territory
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Australia
- Cultural origin
- Warra Warra, Arnhem region
- Date
- 2016
- Media category
- Weaving
- Materials used
- pandanus
- Dimensions
- 73.0 cm dima.
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Gift of Milingimbi Art and Culture 2017
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 58.2017
- Copyright
- © Susan Balbunga/Copyright Agency
- Artist information
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Susan Balbunga
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
Bamugura are a particular type of weaving made in Arnhem Land for a variety of practical purposes. They may be worn by women as a skirt, be folded to carry a baby and opened out to form a dome under which babies and small children can sleep protected by the elements and insects such as milkmilk (mosquito) and gatjirri (sand flies). In certain areas they are also employed in ceremony.
In north-eastern Arnhem Land the form is known as Ngainmara and it is connected to clan designs that are painted on the body. This connection is derived from the pattern of light and shade cast on the bodies of children being shaded from the sun, with the weft and warp of the weaving casting a cross-hatched like pattern of light and shadow on the skin. The Djang’kawu used Ngainmara for their children, as seen in the bark painting by Mawalan Marika in the Gallery’s collection, ‘Djang’kawu creation story’ 1959.
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Places
Where the work was made
Milingimbi