Nadjombolmi Charlie Barramundi early Bark painter
Nadjombolmi Charlie Barramundi (c.1895–1967), a revered senior artist of the Badmardi clan from western Arnhem Land, stands among the most culturally significant Aboriginal painters in Australian history. Celebrated principally for his extraordinary Aboriginal Rock Art and mastery of Arnhem Land Rock Art, Nadjombolmi’s oeuvre embodies a profound fusion of ancestral law, sacred narrative, and artistic authority. He is particularly important in the development of Aboriginal X-Ray Art, with his paintings revealing the internal anatomy and spiritual essence of animals and ancestral beings through highly refined linear detail and dynamic composition.
His enduring legacy is prominently showcased in the Anbangbang Main Gallery within the Burrungkuy region of Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory of Australia. In this iconic rock shelter, visited by more than 150,000 people annually, Nadjombolmi and his companion Nym Djimongurr (c.1910–1969) painted and repainted approximately twenty major images during the wet season of 1963–64, reinforcing the continuing ceremonial life of the Arnhem Land escarpment tradition.
Less widely known but equally important are Nadjombolmi’s bark paintings, executed primarily between the mid-1950s and 1966. These rare works, now held in major museums and private collections worldwide, reveal another dimension of his artistic genius and spiritual authority. He belonged to the first generation of western Arnhem Land artists—including Diidja, Djambalula, and Nym Djimungurr—whose bark paintings were collected by anthropologists and researchers before bark painting production became associated with Oenpelli Art and the mission art movement.
If you have what you believe may be a Nadjombolmi Charlie Barramundi bark painting and would like to know its value or discuss selling it, please feel free to contact me with images and dimensions. I am always interested in seeing important early bark paintings, particularly works currently held outside Australia.
Style
Nadjombolmi Charlie Barramundi painted bark paintings in an archaic style full of power and spirituality. Only a few examples of his work a known but they are so powerful I think he deserves recognition as an important artist. His barks deal with figures from the spirit world such as Namorrordo which are a malicious spirit of the stone country. He also painted Namarrkon the lightning spirit. They are on an ochre background with white kaolin figures covered in fine red lines.
His work exhibits a freedom and flows that I find highly desirable in a great bark painting. He died before barks were commercially collected in the 1960s which accounts for why so few of his work exist. His barks have rough-cut edges.
Early Life and Cultural Heritage
Born around 1895 on the rugged escarpment of Kakadu’s ‘Stone Country,’ Nadjombolmi Charlie Barramundi grew up in an era predating the Western recognition of Aboriginal art as a distinct and profound artistic tradition. At that time, European scholars and collectors had limited understanding of the depth, complexity, and cultural significance embedded in Aboriginal visual expression.
Nayombolmi’s upbringing was steeped in the cultural and artistic knowledge of his Badmardi clan. From childhood, he was mentored by his biological father, Nanggwirid, and his father’s brother, Nagulidj—both esteemed artists in their own right who practiced the venerable rock and bark painting traditions of western Arnhem Land. These senior male relatives introduced Nadjombolmi Charlie Barramundi to ancient rock art sites and ceremonial painting, nurturing his mastery of natural pigments, traditional brushes fashioned from pandanus and human hair, and the preparation of stringybark.
This apprenticeship extended far beyond technique; it was a comprehensive initiation into ancestral law, Dreaming narratives, and the sacred responsibilities of storytelling through art. Rock and bark painting served as vital educational tools in Aboriginal communities, transmitting knowledge about spirit beings, moral conduct, and the laws governing social and spiritual life.
Nayombolmi’s artistic formation thus combined technical skill with deep intellectual and spiritual immersion. This foundation allowed him to preserve and extend a centuries-old artistic lineage at a time when Aboriginal culture faced profound disruptions from colonial expansion.
Nadjombolmi is sometimes spelled Najombolmi of Naiyomeolmi.
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Meaning of Nadjombolmi Charlie Barramundi Bark Paintings
Namorrordo: Malicious Spirit of the Shooting Star
‘In large holes in the vast, rocky Arnhem Land plateau, which the Aborigines refer to as “the stone country” live malicious spirits called Namarnde or namorrordo. These are long-haired people with very thin bodies (“just a little muscle over their bones”) and long, slender fingers tipped with long nails.
Namarnde are considered to be dangerous to humans. In the daytime, they stay quietly in their cool holes in the stone country. At dusk they begin to prowl abroad, uttering high-pitched cry: “Go-wed!”. After nightfall, they go on a “sneaking walkabout” across the sky, looking for a solitary, sleeping Aborigine whose liver and kidney they will remove. This is a practice also favoured by malicious human sorcerers: when the victim awakens, there is no mark on his or her body. In three or four days the person dies.
Namarnde were sometimes glimpsed on their prowls by the ‘old people’ (past generations), who would subsequently paint the image on a rock face or on the inner walls of their bark huts so as to show people what a namurrordo looked like.
Today namorrordo are always invisible to people except when, during their night-time prowls in the sky, they show themselves for a few seconds as a falling star divided across the heavens.
The Echidna Ngarrbek and the Turtle Ngalmangiyi.
The Echidna and long neck turtle are important species that features in the Yabbadurruwa ceremony.
There is an important creation story of the battle between two powerful beings Ngarrbek and Ngalmangiyi. Ngarrbek had a young baby eaten by Ngalmangiyi. This lead to a legendary battle between the two.
Ngalmangiyi had many spears and threw so many at Ngarrbek they covered his entire body. These spears later transformed into the spines and Ngarrbek into an echidna.
Ngarrbek however possed a magic grindstone which he smashed onto the body of Ngalmangiyi. The grindstone transformed into a hard shell and Ngalmangiyi into a Northern Snake-necked Turtle.
At the site where this epic battle occurred, there is still a thicket of bamboo grass used for making spears.
This legendary battle is still acknowledged through ceremony. Kuninjku performs two major regional ceremonies, the Kunabibbi and Yabbadurruwa. The ceremony celebrates the major creation journey of creator beings. These creator beings traveled first north, and then returned south, through their country. Kunabibbi belongs to the Duwa moiety social grouping. Yabbadurruwa belongs to the Yirridjdja moiety.
The two ceremonies are a pair whereby the different social groups have reciprocal roles to play. One group aligns with Ngalmangiyi (Duwa Moiety) and the other with Ngarrbek (Yirridjdja Moiety.
The long neck turtle and Echidna are often depicted with interior decoration to emphasize its important ceremonial role.
Namarrkon The god of Lightning
Namarrkon, the great Lightning Spirit, is the generative force behind the violent electrical storms that define the wet season across western Arnhem Land. In the long dry months, he is said to reside within a secluded billabong near Numbuwah, a site of deep ceremonial significance anchored by a sacred rock formation. His principal dreaming site (djadjan) manifests as a subtle yet powerful projection along the Arnhem Land escarpment—a formation of three conjoined stone pillars, one pierced by a circular aperture near its summit. Located several kilometres north-east of the Nourlangie Rock, to the east of the Koongarra saddle, this feature is both geographically and spiritually charged. The aperture is understood as the eye Namarrkon left behind: a vigilant presence, watching for the approach of the monsoon and, equally, observing his estranged wife, whose dwelling is held within a nearby pillar cave. The site’s name—Namarrkondjadjan—aptly reflects its role, as this promontory is associated with the earliest and most intense electrical storms of the season.
During the monsoon, Namarrkon rises into the storm clouds, where his physical form becomes synonymous with the elements themselves. Thunder is created through the rhythmic striking of the stone hammers affixed to his elbows and knees, while lightning is released in searing bursts across the sky. From this elevated realm, he surveys the land below, his presence both watchful and volatile. When angered, he unleashes blinding flashes, reverberating thunder, and torrential rains that transform the landscape. His first storms, often arriving from late October, are not merely meteorological events but seasonal markers: they signal the ripening of bush foods and announce the onset of the ‘build-up’—that charged, anticipatory period preceding the full monsoon.
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