Bob Bilinyara

Among the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land, the ancestral Burala, also known as the Cormorant or Darter, feeds on the catfish it catches in clan waterholes, a metaphor for the taking of souls from the pool of life. The associated sculpture takes the form of a rangga or sacred ritual object that is depicted in bark paintings either figuratively, or as a series of elongated forms bearing a catfish design.

The label on the reverse reads: “Along the centre of the bark are the ritual representation of two diver birds (as they are carved in wood and painted). Alongside of them are some catfish from saltwater which men spear and eat. The diver birds and the catfish are the painter’s totems”.

In her recent exhibition Art from Milingimbi: taking memories back (focusing on art from Milingimbi collected by Reverend Wells prior to 1962), the Art Gallery of New South Wales, curator Cara Pinchbeck writes that "Bob Bilinyara was central to the group of artists working in Milingimbi in the 1950s. Like Makani he later resided in Maningrida and also at Nangalala where he played a leading role mentoring younger artists. He was among the group of Yolngu men enlisted as part of Donald Thompson’s Special Reconnaissance Unit, charged with protecting Australia’s northern coastline during the later stages of World War II. Bilinyara was also a respected surgeon; in this work, he gives figurative form to those involved in an initiation ceremony."