Kalben 2016-17

Alair Pambegan’s suspended sculptures represent Kalben, a site on Tompaten Creek near its junction with the Watson River, south of Aurukun. His work recalls Flying Fox Story Place 2002–03 (commissioned 2002 with funds from the QAG Foundation Grant) — a series of epic law poles made by his father, the late Arthur Koo-ekka Pambegan Jr, which mimic flying foxes hanging inverted from trees.

The Kalben narrative follows two young brothers undergoing initiation rites. Forbidden from eating bats, the brothers broke this taboo when they killed and cooked hundreds of the mammals in a kup-mar (ground oven). The bats then punished them by carrying them up into the night sky. The brothers remain there as two black patches in the Milky Way, reminding Wik-Mungkan people of the importance of respecting cultural lore.