Yidumduma Bill Harney: Bush Professor

A retrospective exhibition curated by Margie West AM, celebrating the life work of Yidumduma Bill Harney; one of the last fully initiated Wardaman elders whose country lies south-east of present-day Katherine in the Northern Territory. The only remaining living custodian of the collective memory, laws and history of his people, Harney shares his intimate knowledge – described by anthropologists as ‘encyclopedic’ – with the world, through paintings, carvings, didgeridoos and other media. Topics span traditional law, astronomy, sorcery and ancestral narrative.

Yidumduma Bill Harne, left to right: Warling, Young Initiate, 2012; Warranggin (Ceremonial) Law Man, 2012; Gujingga (Law Man), 2012. Courtesy the artist, Godinymayin Yijard Rivers Arts and Culture Centre and Charles Darwin University Art Gallery, Northern Territory

Yidumduma Bill Harney, Bush School, 2007, natural pigments on canvas. Photograph: Paul Taylor

Charles Darwin University Art Gallery
Until 21 July, 2018
Northern Territory

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