Madigan
Thomas
Gija (born 1932)
Goongalun - Firesticks, 2003
natural pigments and binder on canvas
80 x 100cm
PROVENANCE
Warmun Art Centre, WA, cat.no.WAC 280/03
Private Collection, SA
Documentation reads
Goongalun are special sticks used for making fires. Only women were allowed
to use these sticks. In the Ngarrangkarni (Dreaming) some men had been
hunting and caught a kangaroo. From a distance they saw the smoke from
a fire and went towards it. They found some women there and asked them
for a goongalun to make a fire, sot hey could cook the kangaroo. The women
had seen them coming and had hidden the sticks in an anthill. They told
the men that they were not allowed to use these sticks. The story belongs
to Mowarun Country, which lies on the other side of Bedford Downs Staiotn
(south-west of Warmun). The bottom of the painting shows the hills of
this country, the fireplace where the women were camped ad the two anthills
where they hid the goongalun. The black area represents the smoke from
the fire.