Nauiyu
Image: Etching by Elaine Sambono
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Merrepen Arts
Merrepen Arts is located at Nauiyu
Community in the Daly River Region about 2 hours drive from Darwin.
There are around 20 artists working at the art centre producing
contemporary colourful works representing the abundant local flora and fauna.
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Image: Etching by Biddy Lindsay
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Merrepen Arts Festival
The Merrepen Arts
Festival is an annual event held on the first weekend of June, featuring
the famous Merrepen art sale and art auction, a great opportunity to purchase
the colourful and contemporary art works produced by the Merrepen artists.
Visist the Merrepen Arts Festival website
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Image: Photo by Todd Condie, courtesy NLC. |
“We chose to call this tour Fi because this
word fits the weaving process. Translated directly it means endless nothingness
or emptiness, and the word can also describe how you can create something out
of this nothing………
the idea of the weaving pattern was given to the old people by the
Golden Orb spider’s big web. In my language Ngen giwumirri we call it
awurrsyi. It makes big strong nets that catch lots of insects. In the
olden days people would see the spider and wonder how he could make
this net without hands. Back in the Dreamtime mother earth gave humans
their totems,land and language, but also their hands so they could make
spears and dilly bags. So people believed that the creation of the
spider web was done in a spiritual way.
Without hands the spider made the web from a force in its mind.
The spider could think his web from nothing into something. In the same way we
start weaving with our empty hands and collect from nature to create something
out of nothing. That is why we call this weaving presentation Fi.” Patricia ‘Marfurra’ McTaggart
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