Aboriginal Fine Art

Tribe: Yirrganydji

Area: Queensland

Born: 1972

Biography:

Born in far North Queensland, Mundejah is a descendant of the Yirrganydji people through her mother’s father.  In 1995 Mundejah was first shown acrylic painting and since then she has expressed herself on canvas

Her cultural heritage is continuously being passed to her through her family and has given Mundejah a strong sense of closeness to her painting’s.  Over the years her style has constantly evolved as she gains more knowledge of her traditional culture. Yirrganydji people ate gook, “bush tucker”.  The women had intimate knowledge of the sand goanna’s movements.  They would firstly inspect the ground for any tracks, then upon finding the goanna they would burrow out the goanna with their digging sticks.

Mundejahs canvases depict the important food sources that the women could gather and prepare.  Each piece is done with intense concentration and with great creative energy, piling layer upon layer onto her canvas.  This sometimes results in up to four layers.

In Mundejah’s art work you will see dotted circles connecting together through dots which are the walking tracks between the huts and campsites that the Yirrganydji, people used in their traditional lifestyle. Mundejah also depicts scrub turkey eggs in her painting’s and scrub turkey tracks walking away from the eggs. The dillybag is always represented in Mundejah’s painting because it was a valuable possession for the Yirrganydji women.

Snake, Goanna and human feet tracks are seen throughout the paintings, representing the gathering of the food sources.

Mundejah uses her hands and feet in her painting along with her three sons hand and feet.  It represents the knowledge and love that has been passed down through the generations.

Her unique style and use of warm and strong colour gives the canvas a relationship with her people, language group and culture.