'The Baru is my mother totem, the lines in the print is when the boys are ready for circumcised' – Norman Wilfred

About Norman Wilfred

Norman Nullundala Wilfred was born in Mountain Valley in 1964. He grew up in Ngukurr, but walked all over this country from Ngukurr to Ngilibitji. When he was 16, he walked to Walker River and set up camp there and started looking for his country with his father. After a couple of days they found Ngilibitji. They stopped there, built a paper bark house and lived on bush food and bush medicine. It was there that Norman was taught painting from his father, using paper bark as a surface. People would fly in from Katherine to buy all their paintings. They lived in the bush right through the wet season.

In his early 20s, Norman returned to Ngukurr and has been painting on and off ever since with the knowledge he learnt from his father.

Text supplied by Ngukurr Arts.

About Ngukurr Arts

Ngukurr Art Centre sits a stone’s throw from the banks of the Roper River in Ngukurr, South East Arnhem Land. The Art Centre, like the town of Ngukurr, is unique – bringing together people of many different clans and language groups including Ngalakgan, Alawa, Mangarrayi, Ngandi, Marra, Warndarrang, Nunggubuyu, Ritharrngu-Wägilak and Rembarrnga. Together these clans are known as Yugul Mangi.