January Nangunyari Namiridali Bark Painter
January Nangunyari Namiridali (1918–1973) was a pioneering Aboriginal bark painter from Croker Island in Western Arnhem Land, renowned for his bold, unembellished compositions and the spirited vitality of his Mimi spirit figures. A member of the Djalama clan, Yirridjdja moiety, and speaker of the Kunwinjku language, Nangunyari painted in a style that remained free from European influence, preserving the raw immediacy of early Croker Island bark painting. His works are instantly recognisable for their uncluttered layouts, playful energy, and rhythmic use of colour.
If you have a January Nangunyari painting to sell please contact me. If you want to know what your bark painting is worth to me please feel free to send me a Jpeg. I would love to see it. Crocker island barks are my passion due to their freedom and expression.
Artistic Style and Subjects
Nangunyari’s paintings typically feature tall, slender Mimi spirits—mischievous ancestral beings central to Western Arnhem Land mythology—often depicted mid-gesture, appearing to wave or dance. His figures are rendered predominantly in white, with black or red detailing, set against a flat monochrome ground of deep ochre red or warm yellow. Some works carry a distinctive “zebra-stripe” quality, created through parallel lines or bold blocks of colour in place of cross-hatching (rarrk), which he never adopted. His compositions are deliberately sparse, with no unnecessary elements, allowing the subject’s personality and ceremonial significance to dominate the viewer’s attention.
While his most collected works focus on Mimi spirits, Nangunyari also painted important totemic subjects, including Namanjwarre, the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus). For the Yirridjdja moiety, Namanjwarre is a ceremonial guardian—protector of the sacred objects of the Mardayin ceremony, an important initiation ritual for Kunwinjku speakers. This totem is danced in restricted ceremonial contexts and linked to sacred sites near Kurrindin in the Liverpool River District.
Biography and Legacy
Documented by anthropologists in the 1960s as part of the first group of Croker Island artists to receive formal recognition, January Nangunyari Namiridali’s work is sometimes misattributed to contemporaries such as Paddy Compass Namatbara, Jimmy Mijaumijau, or Wagbara. Alternative spellings of his name include Nongunyari, Nanganyari, and Nangunjari. Today, his bark paintings are prized in the art market for their historical importance, expressive freedom, and authentic reflection of Western Arnhem Land’s pre-contact artistic traditions.
Collectors seeking to authenticate or value a January Nangunyari Namiridali bark painting are encouraged to compare stylistic traits—particularly the minimalism of his Mimi figures, monochrome ochre backgrounds, and absence of rarrk—with known works held in museum and private collections.
His works are sometimes mistaken for other artists such as Namatbara, Jimmy Mijaumijau or Wagbara.
Meaning of January Nangunyari Namiridali Bark paintings
Namanjwarre The Crocodile
Namanjwarre, the saltwater crocodile, Corcodylus porosus. The crocodile Namanjwarre is a Yiridja moiety totem.
The estuarine crocodile or Namanjwarre is the protector of the sacred objects of the Mardayin ceremony. The Mardayin ceremony is an important rite of passage for Kuninjku language speakers of Western Arnhem Land. Namanjwarre would devour anyone who transgressed from the correct ceremonial protocol.
Crocodiles are rarely killed for food but their eggs are sought after during the wet season when the females are nesting. A major crocodile sacred site exists near the outstation of Kurrindin, in the Liverpool River District.
Namanjwarre is an important totem and is danced in the sacred and secret ritual of the Mardayin ceremony.
Luma Luma – The Powerful Giant of the Mardayin Ceremony
In Kunwinjku and Kuninjku ancestral tradition, Luma Luma was a formidable giant whose authority was matched only by his greed. Whatever food his wives gathered, or the men hunted, he declared taboo, denying others sustenance. In the absence of the hunters, he took their wives for himself. While Luma Luma prospered, the people starved.
Determined to end his tyranny, the clans laid a trap. Luma Luma was engulfed in fire, his great body pierced with spears. In his final moments, he pleaded to teach the men the sacred rarrk — ancestral cross-hatched designs — by carving them into his own flesh. When this act was complete, he returned to the sea, transforming back into a marine creature, the realm from which he came.
Luma Luma in the Mardayin Ceremony
As the principal creator figure of the Mardayin ceremony, Luma Luma is said to have created the other Ancestral Beings and placed Aboriginal people within their rightful clan territories. He established the ceremonial paintings worn by dancers, their designs glistening with ancestral power.
These Mardayin belly designs, painted onto initiates, transfer a measure of Luma Luma’s original authority to the wearer. He also fashioned all sacred objects for the ceremony, his own body transformed into these ritual instruments after his death.
Luma Luma’s story is more than myth — it is an origin account for some of Arnhem Land’s most profound ceremonial art. Bark paintings depicting the giant, his rarrk designs, or the Mardayin ceremony remain highly sought after by collectors, embodying both artistic mastery and deep cultural heritage.