Djambu Barra Barra

Djambu Barra Barra (also known as Sambo Barra Barra) (1946–2005) was an Indigenous Australian artist based in Ngukurr, in the Northern Territory of Australia. Ngukurr is considered an artistically significant community with many diverse styles and artists, including Barra Barra. He is known for his brightly colored acrylic paintings depicting mainly Yirritja ancestral stories, including the Burdal Plains Kangaroo, the Guyal Sand Goanna, crocodiles, and the Devil Devil (Nagaran). He was raised in the Wagilak community without communication or contact with Europeans, a unique upbringing compared to other artists from Ngukurr, This allowed him to gain experience in bark and ceremonial body painting, and techniques from both of these regions, like the use of the 'X-Ray' style, rarrk (sacred crosshatching), and large figures that occupy the frame, can be seen in his artwork.

In the 1960s, Barra Barra traveled back to the eastern side of Arnhem Land and lived in Ngukurr until the mid-1970s, moving to the Costello outstation after marrying Amy Johnson, who would also become a painter. CMS was meant to serve in part as a refuge for the Aboriginal population in the wake of the Frontier War, a series of violent altercations between settler cattle farmers and indigenous populations. This ancestry is traditionally passed down paternally, and can dictate the types of ceremonies, sacred clan designs, and spousal marriages that one can commit to and execute. Despite these differences, Ngukurr Art provided the artists with a workspace as well as a community for collaboration. This social network allowed many artists to then rise to fame in the global art market. Ngukurr Arts has been in long time conversation with Anthony and Beverly Knight, directors of the Alcaston Gallery in Melbourne. The Knights especially enjoyed Ginger Riley's works, and purchased them all. Many of these works are now featured in the National Gallery of Victoria. This level of investment and interaction helped to gain publicity for the Roper River artists in the Western art markets. and few of them could be returned to their owners.

During this time, Barra Barra began to work with his wife, Amy Jirwulurr Johnson, and collaborated with her for nearly 20 years. She and Barra Barra were part of numerous group exhibitions at the Alcaston Gallery in Melbourne from 1989 to 1997, curated and represented by Beverly Knight of the Knight family, notable supporters of Ngukurr artists. Barra Barra chose instead to focus on specific ancestral beings and stories, and figures were limited to only a few per piece. Many of his paintings are in the figurative tradition, and feature ancestral beings and mortuary scenes, as well as iterations of both his and his mother's Dreamings, like the Plains Kangaroo, the crocodile, and the Guyal Sandridge Goanna. As one of the first key artists of what is now Ngukurr Art Centre, Djambu Barra Barra, along with Ginger Riley Manduwalawala, Willie Gudabi, and Amy Johnson, helped set a precedent for what Ngukurr artists could achieve.

Works

Collections National Gallery of Australia National Gallery of Victoria Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia

Significant exhibitions 1987: National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin 1987: Beat Strit – 10 years on, Melbourne 2009-2010: Colour Country: Art from the Roper River. Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, Wagga Wagga; Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide; Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra; Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.