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Aboriginal Artist Abel Naborlhborlh |
Abel is a local artist; his country is in Munmoi in the Northern Territory of Australia. He has had many pieces of art exhibited across the Top End, he has been recently commissioned by the Art Museum of Australian Aboriginal Art and Studies to provide advice on ‘xray art’ and the ancient art of the galleries – particularly in Arnhem Land.
He has taught many young men – similar to how he was tutored when a boy focusing on the language, country, hunting and the ‘Djang’ … Dreamtime stories.
As with all Aboriginal artists, Abel paints the stories he was given as a small child. These include “Lightning Man” and “Ginga” stories, along with the scary "Mimi Spirits" that were the first creatures on the earth that taught the Bininj how to hunt, what foods to eat, where to go to hunt and what the structure or anatomy is…hence the X-Ray style. Cross hatching is the other distinctive form of painting – with the ‘rrark or manyilk’ the grass like paint brush.
Having lacked a writing system, painting is the mechanism through which information is stored and oral history and religion are animated for successive generations. Themes represented in these paintings may be seen at art sites throughout Kakadu National Park and Arnhem Land.