Curatorial+Co. presents The Colour of Country – a collaborative offsite exhibition in our Woolloomooloo gallery with the National Indigenous Art Fair (NIAF), co-curated by Dunghutti/Gomeroi curator Nioka Lowe-Brennan, from 2–19 July 2025.

Simone is part of the next generation of young Kuninjku artists. Daughter of Pamela Namunjdja, she uses a palette of black and white like other artistic family members Susan Marawarr and Carissa Gurwalwal. Working predominately in carved wooden sculptures, Namunjdja uses thin and delicate branches of Kurrajong to depict manifestations of the Mimih spirit.

“This painting depicts a sacred site at ‘Kurrurldul’, an outstation south of Maningrida. The ‘rarrk’, or abstract crosshatching, on this work represents the design for the crow totem ancestor called ‘Djimarr’. Today this being exists in the form of a rock, which is permanently submerged at the bottom of Kurrurldul Creek. The ‘Djimarr’ rock in the stream at Kurrurldul is said to move around and call out in a soft hooting tone at night. Both the stone itself and the area around it are considered sacred. The imagery represents the rock mentioned above at the bottom of Kurrurldul creek, which is the final transmutation of the dreaming ancestor ‘Djimarr’. Finally, the pattern used here is also the crow design used in the sacred ‘Mardayin’ ceremony, which is a large regional patri-moiety ceremony now rarely conducted in central and eastern Arnhem Land.”

This work appears courtesy of Maningrida Arts & Culture.