Deutscher and Hackett

Ginger Riley Munduwalawala was born on the coastal salt-water country of the Mara people in south east Arnhem Land and was the custodian of his mother's country, which extends from the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria along the Limmen Bight River to the Four Arches-'My mother country is in my mind'.¹ This painting, The Wet- My Mother's Country 1994, a large major canvas by Munduwalawala, is centered on this expansive country, incorporating elements of the landscape with animal life, together with images of ancient mythological creation stories.

According to Munduwalawala's story, the snake Garimala, shown in the centre of this painting as a pair of snakes, created the Four Arches, an area regarded as 'the centre of the earth, where all things start and finish'² Riley noted that'Garimala travelled from far away and lives in the waterhole or billabong that he created near the Four Arches. The travelling Garimala is often depicted as a pair of snakes.'³ Perched above is Ngak Ngak, the white-breasted sea eagle who is the protector and guardian spirit of this country. This story is told during the rainy days of the Wet Season with the sun inside a cloud spreading a red glow across the sky. Plains kangaroo are visible in the painting however they are clearly of secondary importance to both the ancestral beings Garimala and Ngak Ngak, and the land itself.

Whilst still in his adolescence, Munduwalawala met the watercolourist Albert Namatjira, whose style was to have an ongoing impact upon his practice. The meeting with Namatjira was to resonate considerably, forging 'Riley's idea that the colours of the land as seen in his imagination could be captured in art with munangu paints.'⁴ Nearly two decades after his first attempt, a second opportunity arose when the Northern Territory Open College of TAFE established a printmaking workshop in the Ngukurr Aboriginal Community, formerly known as the Roper River Mission. Here Munduwalawala was able to experiment once again with the munanga colours of red, blue and yellow, mixing them to create green, purple and pink.

In 1992 Munduwalawala received the Alice Springs Art Prize, that same year undertaking a commission for the Australian Embassy in Beijing. The following year he won the first National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Commission Art Award, and in 1996 was awarded the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board of the Australia Council Fellowship for 1997- 1998 in recognition of his outstanding achievements.

1. Ryan, J., Ginger Riley, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1997, p. 15
2. ibid, p. 32
3. ibid, p. 30
4. ibid, p. 29