Jimmy Mijau Mijau 1897-1985, Kangaroo

Jimmy Mijau Mijau 1897-1985, Aboriginal bark painting of a kangaroo

This bark painting is by Jimmy Mijau Mijau and was collected in 1975. Mijau Mijau was a very important painter of ceremonial subjects. Examples of his work can be found in most major books on bark painting and in many of the public galleries and museums in Australia and overseas . This painting is a classical West Arnhem Land image of the red kangaroo known as Kendarik. Images like this are found in many of the rock galleries in the rocky plateau country. Each artist shows his own interpretation of the kangaroo while still painting within a traditional framework.

This painting depicts the ancestor from the “Dreamtime” of the man who could turn himself at will into a kangaroo. This ancestor was known as Kendarik. He made a picture of himself with pigments on the wall of the rock overhang he live in . He then organised a ceremony called the “Ubar Ceremony”. He invited all the kangaroo men to attend. Before the Ubar ceremony was performed he instructed the men to paint the image of the kangaroo many times on the rocks surrounding the Ubar ground. Should the Ubar ceremony be performed in a place where there were no rocks at all on which the design could be painted, sheets of bark should be used. This custom according to Aboriginals is how the art of painting on bark originated.
The painting is in excellent condition