Kurtal as Miltjitawurru: Storm Being from the south
Jarinyanu David DOWNS: artist
Kurtal is a storm being from the Ngarangarni- the Walmajari word for the dreaming. He started out in coastal salt marsh country in the NW Kimberley and travelled SE, creating a number of sites in the country for which various different groups of people exercise primary responsibility. When he reached his final destination he met his partner who he tricked into descending into the ground. Kurtal then danced his final dance before metamorphosed into a snake and sank into the earth where he remains today in a permanent rock hole spring. It is here that men would perform ceremony to make Kurtal bring rain. This site is close to Jarinyanu’s birth, slightly east of the Canning stock route, south of lake Gregory. Today, Kurtal remains a moral guardian and protector land use rights to those people with associated relationships to his sites of significance.
Title
Kurtal as Miltjitawurru: Storm Being from the south
Artist/Maker and role
Jarinyanu David DOWNS: artist
Date
1987
Medium
ochre and synthetic polymer paint on canvas
Measurements
221.4 x 136.6 cm
Credit line
Purchased 1988
© Jukuna Mona Chuguna / Copyright Agency
The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia
Accession number
1988/0282