Elder Wing of Australian Art: Audio Described Tour
Work 2 of 6

Minimini Mamarika
The Malay Prau

Minimini Mamarika was an Anindilyakwa artist from Groote Eylandt located in far north east Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. The Malay Prau made in 1948 by Mamarika depicts a perahu, a wind powered vessel complete with its crew of Makassan fisherman from Sulawesi in Indonesia. A perahu is a multi-hulled wooden boat powered by wind.

The Malay Prau is painted on stringy bark (Eucalyptus tetrodonta) which is harvested in the wet season, once dried and flattened it is painted with natural pigments.

The title of this work came from a Colonial era when Indonesian people were referred to as Malay. We know now that the people depicted in this painting were actually Makassan and Bugis fisherman who for hundreds of years sailed each December (tropical wet season) from their homes in south east Asia to the coast of Arnhem Land to fish for trepang (sea cucumber). The Makassans also traded items such as metal axes, cloth and rice in exchange for exotic goods such as pearl fish, turtle shell and cypress-pine wood. After 1901 the South Australian Government banned this trade with the purpose of developing a national trepang industry, with the last perahu leaving Arnhem land in 1907.

In 1948 Charles Mountford, amateur ethnologist and collector lead a group of 16 members of the American- Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land to observe the life of Aboriginal people to learn how they managed their environment and collect cultural material. Mountford collected a total of five hundred paintings on bark and were later distributed amongst six capital city galleries. At least five of these works were by Minimini Mamarika, but The Malay Prau was not included in this distribution and was later donated to the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Although The Malay Prau was painted in the twentieth century it shows that the frequent connection with the Makassans influenced Aboriginal life, incorporating these stories into their history and language. Given Mamarika’s date of birth, it is likely he witnessed the Makassan’s fishing on Groote Eylandt and either depicted this image from memory or oral tradition, or was inspired by rock paintings in Arnhem Land of the perahu. Oral culture was rich with traces of this exchange evident in storytelling.