Djambu Barra Barra (also known as Sambo Barra Barra) (1946–2005) was an Indigenous Australian artist based in Ngukurr, in the Northern Territory of Australia. Ngukurr is considered an artistically significant community with many diverse styles and artists, including Barra Barra. He is known for his brightly colored acrylic paintings depicting mainly Yirritja ancestral stories, including the Burdal Plains Kangaroo, the Guyal Sand Goanna, crocodiles, and the Devil Devil (Nagaran).Bowdler, Cath. "Big corroboree stories: The paintings of Sambo Burra Burra." In "Peintpeintbat : four artists from Roper Way." PhD thesis, Australian National University, 2008. https://doi.org/10.25911/5d5e73a38fd09.
Early life
Djambu Barra Barra (Dhuwa) was born around 1946 in Wagilak country near Nilipidgi on the Walker River. He was raised in the Wagilak community without communication or contact with Europeans, a unique upbringing compared to other artists from Ngukurr, a Northern Territory in Australia.
After his father (Wagilak) and his mother (Ritharrngu), along with the rest of his family, died, Barra Barra left Wagilak and traveled along Dreaming paths throughout Arnhem Land, following major ritual paths. He actively sought out knowledge about his own and other clans' rituals, ceremonies, and stories, particularly those in Central and Western Arnhem Land. This allowed him to gain experience in bark and ceremonial body painting, and techniques from both of these regions, like the use of the 'X-Ray' style, rarrk (sacred crosshatching), and large figures that occupy the frame, can be seen in his artwork.Bowdler, Cath. Art from Roper River (talk). https://collab.its.virginia.edu/access/content/group/7d60decc-b388-4416-8df3-41cd23bd9720/Activities/Week%2010/5NGA-Art-from-Ngukurr.pdf
In the 1960s, Barra Barra traveled back to the eastern side of Arnhem Land and lived in Ngukurr until the mid-1970s, moving to the Costello outstation after marrying Amy Johnson, who would also become a painter. Ngukurr originated from an Anglian mission by the Victorian Church Missionary Society in 1908. It was officially known as the Roper River Mission and focused on establishing industrial, agricultural, educational, and spiritual Christian foundations in the community.Sandefur, John. Aspects of the Socio-Political History of Ngukurr and its Effect on Language Culture. http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p71761/pdf/article103.pdf CMS was meant to serve in part as a refuge for the Aboriginal population in the wake of the Frontier War, a series of violent altercations between settler cattle farmers and indigenous populations. While the mission provided stable housing and meals, as well as English classes for children and taught agricultural technical skills, its purpose was also to siphon out Aboriginal traditions in favor of instilling a more European way of life out of sympathy. Because of the prevalence of the cattle industry and the mission, Ngukurr drew people from across Arnhem Land and became a place of flux for indigenous populations. This lack of cohesion set the context for the non-homogeneous artwork that would emerge from the region later on. The years following the end of the Australian Assimilation policy (1963) saw the slow decline of the mission, and in 1968, the Welfare Branch of the Northern Territory assumed control of the settlement, transitioning to the Ngukurr Town Council in 1973.
During his time in Ngukurr, Barra Barra adjusted to the semi-moiety system in place, which was a unique feature of Roper culture. Aboriginal Australian cultures assign natural objects (including plants, animals, and people) one of two Moieties: Dhuwa or Yirritja.Morphy, Frances (2008)https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251797299_Invisible_to_the_state_kinship_and_the_Yolngu_moral_order (PDF), Negotiating the Sacred V: Governing the Family. pp 1-13 This ancestry is traditionally passed down paternally, and can dictate the types of ceremonies, sacred clan designs, and spousal marriages that one can commit to and execute. Roper traditionally enforced semi-moieties, which determined specific ceremonies and designs that one could partake in, so Barra Barra's Yolngu ancestry was further classified as being of Dhuwa moiety with a Mambi subsection and Wamut skin group. After moving back to Ngukurr in the 1980s, Barra Barra integrated himself into the Ngukurr community through his extensive knowledge of Aboriginal ceremonies and culture, and was respected as a ceremony man. This was aided by his travels as a young man, and Barra Barra eventually became Ngukurr's initiation and funeral director, aided in part by his Wagilak upbringing, which participated in purification ceremonies during funerals in Ngukurr. However, because of his lack of land ownership, Barra Barra did not hold any political power within Ngukurr, despite his ceremonial duties and respect from the community.
Context: Roper River and Ngukurr artistic community
Ngukurr Arts is the collaborative art community that formed at Roper River. The art community was formed as a way of integrating the number of Aboriginal cultures present in the area. The community is known for its cohesion of various artists, who come together as a group based on their passion for innovation. The artists all use bright, striking colours in their works. This dynamic style makes it hard to define Ngukurr Arts in any specific way as the Roper River artists strive to differentiate themselves from previously established Aboriginal tradition. Despite these differences, Ngukurr Art provided the artists with a workspace as well as a community for collaboration. This social network allowed many artists to then rise to fame in the global art market.
The Ngukurr Arts Initiative organized field trips to other art centers, secured continuous fundraising for artists, organized exhibitions, and taught principles of distribution, marketing, and management.Frawley, Jack. An Immediate and Crying Need: Adult Education and Aboriginal Art in a Remote Northern Territory Community. (2002) https://researchbank.acu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2598&context=fea_pub Ngukurr Arts has been in long time conversation with Anthony and Beverly Knight, directors of the Alcaston Gallery in Melbourne. The Knights especially enjoyed Ginger Riley's works, and purchased them all. Many of these works are now featured in the National Gallery of Victoria. This level of investment and interaction helped to gain publicity for the Roper River artists in the Western art markets.
Roper River artists Some other artists include Ginger Riley, Manduwalawala Willie Gudabi, Moima Willie, Gertie Huddleston and Amy Jirwulurr Johnson.
Ngukurr arts and artistic career In 1987, Barra Barra, along with other artists such as Ginger Riley Manduwalawala, took part in a screen printing workshop through the Ngukurr Adult Education Committee. The committee was the result of a Northern Territory Open College initiative that implemented oral history and bush medicine, and was headed by Brian Burkett and Gale Duell starting in 1985. Burkett and Duell traveled with a select group of artists from Ngukurr to Yuemdumu in the desert to learn more about the economic benefits of artistic creation. This inspired many artists to become more involved in artistic pursuits. Edie Kurzer, who initially oversaw a screen printing course from 1986 - 1987, began teaching T-shirt stencil methods, and the screen print workshops became social events for the community. However, Kurzer noticed that the workshop was expensive and not generating enough money to be sustainable, and several men like Willie Gudabi sought another medium to dabble in, potentially for cultural significance. John Nelson, who succeeded Kurzer, created a paint workshop targeted towards men who were interested in 1987. Nelson noticed that Barra Barra and Riley were quick and eager to paint, choosing brightly coloured and highly saturated screen printing ink and lawn curtain material.
Barra Barra began using acrylics on canvas and searched for his own style. In Ngukurr, drawing and painting were seen as forms of sorcery, and specific clan designs could not be referenced in order to maintain their secrecy. This forced Barra Barra and Ginger Riley to examine different solutions to this problem, and while Riley's stylistic evolution was more gradual, Barra Barra was quickly able to utilize techniques from his Yolngu heritage and his time traveling in Western and Central Arnhem Land.
Barra Barra, along with other Ngukurr artists, made their public debut at the 4th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA) held at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. The Ngukurr artists' use of brightly coloured acrylics on canvas, along with their variation in styles and lack of cohesion between artists, made them prominent features, creating a large press coverage and gaining popularity with multiple galleries. Barra Barra's early work, Crocodile Story (1987), featured a crooked canvas shape due to a portion of a foot and tail extending outside of the frame. About the work, Barra Barra said, "The crocodile has creative thoughts, like humans. He knows how heavy the floods will be. He builds a very clever nest. His eyes are no longer eyes. They are fire". The painting, which depicts a crocodile surrounded by fish carrying a man to eat, demonstrates Barra Barra's use of "public" versions of ancestral stories, as the crocodile story's true meaning can only be known to certain trained men. The painting, featuring his signature complementary colour pallet, was extremely meaningful to him, and Barra Barra requested that such a painting was to be buried with him. However, many of the paintings made by Ngukurr artists were made exclusively for galleries,McCulloch, Susan, "Arnhem Land: Ngukurr." In Contemporary Aboriginal Art (2nd. ed.). Allen & Unwin, 2001, 194-199. and few of them could be returned to their owners.
During this time, Barra Barra began to work with his wife, Amy Jirwulurr Johnson, and collaborated with her for nearly 20 years. She used similar bold contrasting colours as her husband, with a focus on primary colours and usually depicting animals and plants with meticulous detail. Their work shared some motifs and stylistic trends, although Amy Johnson's work presents portrays animals from her mother's country rather than the ancestral figures and totems found in her husband's work. She and Barra Barra were part of numerous group exhibitions at the Alcaston Gallery in Melbourne from 1989 to 1997, curated and represented by Beverly Knight of the Knight family, notable supporters of Ngukurr artists. This provided some relief from the slow fade of Ngukurr art and the departure of many members from the Ngkurr Adult Education Committee.
Artistic style and figures