Journey through Culture

Presented as part of Tarnanthi: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art

Journey through Culture

Presented as part of Tarnanthi: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art

Australian Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) artwork by NGARRALJA TOMMY MAY of Mangkaja Artists. The title is Jilji and Bila. [286/19] (Etching on Metal/Acrylic Spray Paint) Australian Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) artwork by NGARRALJA TOMMY MAY of Mangkaja Artists. The title is Jilji and Bila. [286/19] (Etching on Metal/Acrylic Spray Paint)
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NGARRALJA TOMMY MAY (dec)

Jilji and Bila
286/19 (2019)
Etching on Metal/Acrylic Spray Paint
 Jilji and Bila | 286/19
Etching on Metal/Acrylic Spray Pain…
 60 x 60cm | 23.6 x 23.6in
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This is the sandhill country, jilji, on and on they go. In between the jilji, that is called bila, flat country. The jilji can be close, or the bila might be really wide, a few hundred metres. Someone might have burnt that country before. You burn it, and its easier to catch a feed like lizard, and the bush turkeys fly in from everywhere to eat the exposed insects. Bush turkey, that’s good tucker! After fire, grasses grow back and the trees regenerate. We travel in this country, wurna juwal, always travelling from place to place! As you move through country, the type of trees and grasses change, and that determines what you will find, in terms of foods and medicine, or other plants we don’t use. At different times of the year you’ll find beautiful fields of flowers too. On cool mornings you can suck out the nectar of some flowers, before the birds do. Desert oaks are best for shade, they grow together in big numbers, but you don’t find them everywhere. This is an easy story, this is not a story about law. I can tell you.

This is the sandhill country, jilji, on and on they go. In between the jilji, that is called bila, flat country. The jilji can be close, or the bila might be really wide, a few hundred metres. Someone might have burnt that country before. You burn it, and its easier to catch a feed like lizard, and the bush turkeys fly in from everywhere to eat the exposed insects. Bush turkey, that’s good tucker! After fire, grasses grow back and the trees regenerate. We travel in this country, wurna juwal,...