CHARLIE NANGUKWIRRK - MIMIH SPIRIT
CHARLIE NANGUKWIRRK
MIMIH SPIRIT, 2018
160 x 11 x 11 cm
Natural Earth Pigments on Carved Wood
REGION
Maningrida, NT
PROVENANCE
Maningrida Arts & Culture, NT
Art Leven [formerly Cooee Art], Gadigal (Sydney, NSW)
STORY
The people of western Arnhem Land believe that Mimih spirits live in a social organization similar to Aboriginal people and that Mimih society existed before humans. Mimih are credited with instructing the first people with knowledge relating to survival in the rocky environment of the Arnhem Land plateau. Mimih are said to have taught the first humans how to hunt and butcher game and also how to dance, sing and paint.
Mimih are terribly thin, having necks so slender that a stiff breeze would be fatal. For this reason they emerge only on windless day and night to hunt. As soon as a breeze develops, the Mimih are said to run back to their rocky caverns and disappear inside.
ARTIST PROFILE
