Ginger Riley Munduwalawala

Ginger Riley Munduwalawala (c. 1936 – 1 September 2002) was an Aboriginal Australian contemporary artist. He was born in South East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia in the Limmen Bight area, 45 kilometers inland from the Gulf of Carpentaria coast. His first language was Marra, now critically endangered.

Riley was known for his distinctive landscape style and daring use of bright acrylic colors to paint the land surrounding the Limmen Bight River, situated along the Gulf of Carpentaria coast southeast of Arnhem Land —and the mythological figures who created the region. This region is Riley's mother's land, of which he served as its guardian/custodian. Adhering to Marra customs, Riley was not allowed to portray the Dreamings, or ancestral stories from his father's Marra land and therefore stuck to the song lines on his matrilineal side. The landscape of Ginger Riley's mother country includes coastal saltwater that enters the Limmen Bight River, passes through mudflats and Marra territory, and finally reaches the ravine in the middle of the Four Archers – Gurrialadagauwulu.

Riley's use of color sets him apart from many Aboriginal artists in Arnhem Land. By painting with acrylic paints on canvas, he diverged from the conventions of the more traditional Aboriginal art, restricted to natural materials sourced from the land, such as bark and ochre pigments. Riley's distinctive landscapes and brilliant colors defied categorization and challenged stereotypes about what represented 'authentic' Aboriginal art. His art can be seen as a fusion of 'Aboriginal' and 'contemporary.'

Through Riley's portrayal of the landscape, he tells a story of its creation and the mythical events that the Marra people believe shaped the country. Despite taking a Western perspective in his landscapes, his art still draws on spiritual traditions and places emphasis on the intimate relationship his people have with the country that surrounds them.

In 2002, the Australian expressionist and Riley's longterm friend David Larwill, gave Riley the moniker "The Boss of Colour," while he was nearing the end of his life due to lung cancer. The story goes that Larwill visited Riley in Melbourne, and greeted him with the words, "Ginger Riley, the boss of colour," highlighting Riley's accomplished skill of painting with radiant colors.

Riley was awarded the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 1987, the Northern Territory's Alice Prize in 1992, John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize in 1993, the first National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Art Award in 1993 and an Australia Council Fellowship for 1997/98.

His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including at the 4th, 9th, 10th and 11th National Aboriginal Art Award, the 12th Telstra National Aboriginal Art Award, and the 13th and 14th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award.

The National Gallery of Victoria held a 10-year retrospective of his work in 1997, titled Mother Country in Mind: The Art of Ginger Riley Munduwalawala. It was the first time a public institution in Australia honored a living Aboriginal artist in this way.

Early Life and Influences
Ginger Riley was born c.1936 in Marra Country, in South-Eastern Arnhem Land near Ngukurr, the former territory of the Roper River Mission. In the 1950s, Riley began working as a stockman and laborer on the Nutwood Downs Station and other establishments in the Northern Territory. Riley held a number of jobs before his painting career including his work as a police warden at Larrimah, a school groundsman in Darwin, a general maintenance worker for the Numbulwar Council and as a cleaner for Gemco mines at Groot Eylandt.

During his time as a stockman, Riley met the renowned Western Aranda watercolorist, Albert Namatjira, whose art was among the first to be exhibited by an Aboriginal. This encounter left a profound impact on Riley, eventually prompting him to explore painting with acrylics three decades later. Riley utilized Namatjira's influence by recognizing the possibilities within different artistic styles. He integrated elements of Modernism and other inspirations into his traditional art. Through his artwork, Riley showcased various perspectives on Aboriginal art. One key aspect of this evolution was his exceptional use of color. Namatjira's colorful work inspired Riley to capture the colors of his mother's land, which he referred to as 'color country.' Upon his return home, Riley attempted to paint, yet the earthy ochre colors he used proved to be unsatisfactory in depicting the colors he saw in his imagination, leading Riley to work with acrylic paints later on.

In 1987, the Northern Territory Education Department established painting workshops in an old hospital in Ngukurr, where Riley had been residing since the late-1970s. These workshops provided access to acrylic paints and served as the catalyst for Riley's distinguished career. The art center, named "Beat Street," became a hub for extraordinary creative paintings in its first year. Alongside fellow Ngukurr artists Willie Gudabi and Djambu Barra Barra, Riley entered the Aboriginal art scene and quickly gained acclaim for his colorful landscapes and mythic narratives.

The artists working alongside Ginger Riley in Ngukurr reflected the diversity of the region traced back to the establishment of the Roper River Mission in 1908. The significant historical migration to the Roper River Mission played a pivotal role in shaping the unique style and thematic focus of art from the region. The mission brought together clans from the surrounding regions, comprising 8 different language groups. The budding artists in Ngukurr drew upon their different stylistic traditions and iconography combined with the development of their individual creative styles.

Visual Iconography
Riley is remembered for working with a whole visual composition, mixing and layering paint, and experimenting with different colors and effects. Riley's paintings depict his mother's country, the Limmen Bight area surrounding the Limmen Bight River and the rocky outcrop known as the Four Archers (Barrkuwiriji). His characteristic landscape style and brilliant use of color brought Riley into the spotlight as an Aboriginal artist working with contemporary mediums. Aside from the adventurous use of color, Riley’s works are also characteristic of unique iconography, depicting natural and supernatural narratives which take place in the Limmen Bight area, the coastal saltwater country of the Marra people, for which he is both a traditional owner, as well as a custodian (Djungkayi).

In 1999 Riley revealed that his works follow a continuous song-line known as Gudjika. He expressed, "Gudjika is a road - a line; you cannot make it up or steal it, you must follow that line. Gudjika goes forward, never back. Gudjika is about little picture - you think this series of pictures in your mind." This song-line comes from the beginning of time, and while Riley retells his creation story over and over, using different perspectives and variations, he claims that he does not look backward, but forward. His art remained a reflection of what he saw in his mind, a process of discovery in which Riley was uninterested in regurgitating past artworks or conventional formulas. Yet within his forward creativity, Riley continues to communicate tradition.

In his paintings, Riley depicts the landscape of the land and the ancestral beings that created all of its natural features. The most prominent recurring motifs in his work include: Garimala, the snake who created the Four Archers, the Four Archers themselves, Ngak Ngak, a white breasted sea eagle, the Limmen Bight river, the ceremonial shark's liver tree, so-called because a shark gave his liver to create the tree, and additionally, clouds or sun which generally represent Riley's mother.

Garimala is an important creation being who shaped the country, forming a waterhole and the Four Archers. Garimala is the double form of the supernatural King Brown snake, Bandian, of the species Pseudechis australis. Bandian is often depicted as Garimala, sometimes also called Kurra Murra, a two-snake form which remains one entity. The snakes in double form are often depicted in Heraldic symmetry, arching to face one another, above the Four Archers, on either side of a shark’s liver tree. In his work, Riley will sometimes depict Garimala as adopting the identity of the Rainbow Serpent, Wawalu, or the mythic fire-breathing serpent-dragon Bulukbun.

Ngak Ngak, the white-breasted sea eagle, is another central motif in Riley’s paintings. Ngak Ngak often appears in profile, as a guardian being, actively looking over the country and protecting it. The sea eagle is Riley's totem who created the Yumunkuni island in the mouth of the Limmen Bight River and protects the land. Ngak Ngak is almost always painted much larger in proportion to the rest of the composition. This reflects his bird's eye view as the prominent perspective, exhibiting Riley's exploration of aerial perspectives to capture the land, as Ngak Ngak sees it, in flight.

Riley commonly depicts the landscape as if seen from a vantage point above the clouds. This type of surveying gaze, emblematic of Ngak Ngak's viewpoint, can also be seen as a metaphor for Riley's own protective eye and responsibility, as custodian of his mother's country. This perspective is an assertion of Riley's knowledge of the land, as if he is painting a map, in which he knows all of the details, creatures, and ancestral stories. In addition to an aerial viewpoint, Riley explored multiple perspectives in one scene, combining both plan and frontal perspectives, demonstrating the different experiences of one narrative.

Along with the physical motifs outlined above, including the ancestral beings and natural features of the land, Riley incorporated traditional objects and designs associated with sacred ceremonies. This includes his depiction of rectangular 'message sticks,' or 'letter sticks,' Marra ritual objects decorated with zigzag patterns and dots, which are known to announce initiation ceremonies and serve as invitations to his country. More noticeable perhaps are the triangular motifs Riley used to border many of his paintings, speculated to relate to sacred ceremonial body painting designs.

Significant Exhibitions
In 1987, Gabrielle Pizzi, who was in the process of opening one of Australia's only galleries specializing in Aboriginal art, visited Ngukurr to select pieces for their exhibition. Opened in 1988, this was the second exhibition at the new Gabrielle Pizzi Gallery, featuring five works by Ginger Riley Munduwalawala. Ginger Riley Munduwalawala also traveled to Melbourne to attend the opening and speak about the works.

Mother Country in Mind: The Art of Ginger Riley Munduwalawala, National Gallery of Victoria, 17 July – 22 September 1997

Ginger Riley: The Boss of Colour, Castlemaine Art Museum, January – 19 April 2015

Country and Western: Landscape Reimagined