Munupi Arts & Crafts Association

Munupi Arts & Crafts Association is located at Pirlangimpi (Garden Point) on Melville Island's north western coastline. Pilangimpi or Pularumpi, is a small community with a population of approximately 360 Tiwi people.

Munupi Arts & Crafts Centre was established in 1989 and led to the development of both traditional and contemporary Tiwi art and craft in the form of painting, pottery, carving, weaving, screenprints, etchings, linocut prints, lithographs and screen printed textiles. Approximately 37 artists are members of Munupi Arts & Crafts.

The artists' fresh and vibrant approach proudly celebrates Tiwi cultural heritage and the island's unique natural environment. Using gouache, acrylic paints and ochres, Munupi artists produce a diverse range of works that celebrate their Tiwi spiritual, cultural and environmental heritage.

Understanding Tiwi art through learning about the culture & the environment of the Tiwi people

Palineri - The Creation Period

The Tiwi Islands of Bathurst and Melville were created at the beginning of time during the creation period or Palaneri. Before this time there was only darkness and the earth was flat.

Mudungkala, an old blind woman arose from the ground at Murupianga in the South East of Melville Island. Clasping her three infants to her breast and crawling on her knees she travelled slowly north. The fresh water that bubbled up in the track she made became the tideways of the Clarence and Dundas Straits, dividing the two islands from the mainland. She made her way slowly around the land mass and then, deciding it was too large, created the Aspley Strait, which divides the Islands. She then decreed that the bare islands be covered with vegetation and inhabited with animals so that her three children left behind would have food. Nobody knows from where she came and, having completed her work, where Mudungkala vanished.

PURRUKAPALI AND BIMA

Purrukapali was Mudungkala's only son. Every day his wife Bima went out gathering food for him, accompanied by their young son Jinani. In the same camp lived an unmarried man, Japara, who used to persuade Bima to leave her child under the shade of a tree and go into the forest with him.

On one very hot day Bima neglected her son too long and he died in the hot sun. On hearing of the child's death, Purrukapali became so enraged that he struck his wife on the head with a throwing stick and hounded her into the forest.

In an effort to help the anguished father, Japara promised to restore the dead child to life within three days, but Purrukapali was adamant and the two men soon became locked in a deadly struggle.

Purrukapali picked up the dead body of his son and, walking backwards into the sea, he decreed that death should come to the whole world. As his son had died, the whole of creation would die and, once dead, never again would come to life. There was not death before this time.

The place where Purrukapali died, on the east coast of Melville Island, became a whirlpool so strong that anybody who approached it in a canoe would be drowned. When Japara saw what happened he changed himself into the moon. But he did not escape the decree of Purrukapali, for even though his is eternally reincarnated, he has to die for three days every month. One can see on the face of the moon man the wounds that he received in this fight with Purrukapali.

Bima, still bearing scars on her head, became Wayayi, the curlew bird that still roams the forest at night, wailing in remorse for her misdeeds and for the child that she lost.

TOKWAMPINI

The death of Jinani brought the creation period to a close. This even was marked by the first Pukamani burial ceremony. Tokwampini, the father of Bima called all the original creators, men and women, to the ceremony. These mythical beings were taught the rules of behaviour and the laws of marriage and tribal relationships that had always to be obeyed. Then the periods of light and darkness were established, determining the cycle of daily events. The creators transformed themselves into various creatures, plant, animals, natural forces or heavenly bodies - and spread across the islands. They are the Tiwi totems or skin groups.

PUKAMANI

The burial ceremonies of the Tiwi based on the Pukamani of the mythical man Purrukapali are by far the most important events in ceremonial life. These ceremonies allow full expression of grief and provide at the same time a complete cultural outlet for philosophical beliefs, through music, art and dance.

The final Pukamani is the climax of a series of ceremonies that traditionally continued for many months after the burial of the dead. There is usually one iliana (minor ceremony) at the time of death and then many months later the final Pukamani. The ceremony culminates in the erection of monumental carved and decorated Pukamani poles which take many months to prepare and are impressive gifts to placate the spirit of the dead.

Participants in the ceremony are painted with natural ochres in many different designs, transforming the dancers and providing protection against recognition by the spirit of the deceased.

Those participants closely related to the deceased wear decorated armbands (pamajini) during the performance. Pamajini are woven from the leaves of the pandanus or screw palm and are decorated with natural ochres and the feathers of the white cockatoo. The white cockatoo's association with the Tiwi Pukamani ceremony extend beyond the use of its feathers for headbands and armbands. It is believed to keep a sentinel eye on wayward spirits lost on route to the island of the dead.

During all ceremonies a series of dances, yoi, are performed; some are totemic and some serve to act out the narrative of newly composed songs. Aside from these creative and illustrative performances there are those that certain kin must dance, i.e. mother, father, sibling and widow.

When all is concluded and the last wailing notes of the amburu (death song) have died away, the grave is deserted and the burial poles allowed to decay.

KULAMA - Yam Ceremony

Not long before the death of Purrukapali, when all animals and birds were still men and women, Purutjikini, a boobook owl man and his wife Pintoma, a barn owl woman decided to perform the first Kulama ceremony. The white-headed sea eagle jirakati was the first initiate and still wears the ceremonial paint.

At the close of the creation period, the spirit performed a second and complete Kulama ceremony. This included the preparation of the poisonous Kulama yam for food and the performance of all stages of initiation. At its completion they agreed that this form of ceremony should always remain the same.

When a gold ring forms around the moon during the final stages of the wet season Japara the moon man is performing Kulama. Inside this ring a multitude of star people sing and dance Kulama songs. This is the time to prepare for Kulama, the annual celebration of life.

The Kulama yam is a round root vegetable found in the surrounding monsoon forest. It is highly poisonous when not properly prepared. While the yams soak in fresh water the earth oven is prepared. Sand and grass are pushed outward from the centre of the ceremonial ground and a large hole is dug. Dry sticks about one metre long are pushed upright into the ground around the oven and a fire built up of sticks, grasses and crumbled termite mounds. When the fire has burnt down to a bed of coals the oven is ready. The yams are placed in and covered with paper bark and sand. On the third day the yams are eaten, ensuring good health for all participants until the next Kulama.

During Kulama many new songs and dances are performed. The composition of songs and dances was traditionally one of the duties of new initiates. Due to changes, perhaps only in the last two decades, initiation is no longer a part of the Kulama ceremony or a part of Tiwi social structure. The song and dance performances express the wishes and desires of the participants for a healthy and prosperous future.

Large concentric circles often appear as the main element of contemporary Tiwi paintings, representing the Kulama circle or ceremonial dancing ground. They are icons of Tiwi spiritual belief.