Blackout – Malangi

This documentry was on David Malangi and Aboriginal Artist:

"When the earth was made there were no waterholes or billabongs, places had no names and people had no language. Two spirit women came at sunrise from the East and breathed life into this place. The two Djang-kuwa sisters who came from the East changed their language when they go to Dhamala. They named the places and became part of the tribe here. When walking slowly with their digging sticks and they put their sticks into the ground they made waterholes. Before this there was none. When they put their sticks into the ground the water rose up.”

This is the 'dreaming' story of how the water holes became apparent and this was something David was likely to paint. David paints his sacred sites and dreamings which I found unusual as I thought that dreaming stories were secrets of the ancestors and should only be passed down generation to generation.

David Malangi was the custodian and tribal leader. He lived a semi traditional life and was an acclaimed artist. Most of his paintings depict creation stories and reveal how his land, creatures and people came to being. These stories are David’s reality. David has four wives.

“Our law is different, we were raised on a different sort of law. A man can have two, four or five wives. We are different to white people. I look after everyone, they’re all mine, the people and the land. I am the one who’s looking after them.”

Hearing this actually really surprised me that in the Aboriginal Culture a man can have as many wives as he wants. I have tried to find more information on this but unfortunately couldn’t find anything. Hopefully I will soon be able to find something on it and post about it.

“We have grown up with our culture and kept it. Our sacred sites, our ceremonies and secret dreamings.”

1965 The Reserve Bank used one of David’s paintings depicting Gurrmirringu in a funeral scene as a design on the new $1 note. David was only aware of this when the first notes appeared in 1966. The bank was quick to correct this oversight. David received a medal from the Administrator for the $1 note.

 

(this image was sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_one-dollar_note)

“This is how they paid me, with a dinghy, tent and $500. That’s all I got from the $1 note, and this medal.”

It’s funny how the white Australians take recognition of the Aboriginal People when it suites them. They needed a design for a note and David’s Gurrimirringu funeral scene was something they were after and ‘used’ it. I believe this still happens in the modern society of today. Especially in the sense where non Indigenous people are buying Aboriginal art with no or little knowledge of what the art itself and the history or spiritual side behind it actually means because it is ‘trendy’. 

Cantwell, Paul. Blackout: Malangi, Directed by Michael Riley, Australian Broadcasting Company, 30 min. DVD