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Tribal brothers 1982

Artwork has not been digitised or not available due to pending copyright clearence, thus not currently available online
Accession No.
2020.130.001-004
Date Created
1982
Gallery location
Not on public display
Department
Indigenous Australian Art
Dimensions A
Four panels: 75 x 110 x 4cm (each, irreg.); 160 x 230 x 4cm (overall, irreg.)
Media Category
Ceramic
Secondary Media Category
earthenware
Medium
Hand-built earthenware tiles with underglazes
Place Created
Sydney, NSW
Credit Line
Gift of Rio Tinto through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation 2020. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Each panel of Thanakupi’s Tribal brothers portrays a different creation story of the Thungganh tribal brothers, who forged the land, animals and customary laws. Thanakupi uses the ceramic medium to preserve and activate these stories from Napranum, near Weipa in Cape York. The tribal brothers are portrayed as animals in this large installation, and the pairings tell of the iconic animals that carved the landscape and explain how they came to look the way they do today.

Pinje (blind shark) works with his brothers Ndrrwal (long tom fish), Alandhak (barramundi) and Thungganh (flying fish), to build sandhills and a new waterhole. Another tale sees two birds fighting, striking each other in the face with clubs, their blows resulting in brahminy kite Chith’s curved beak and the flattened head of Thwal, the white-bellied eagle.
 

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Exhibitions featuring this object

Works by (l–r) Garry Namponan, Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri, Craig Koomeeta and Jack Bell, installed at QAG for 'Great and Small', July 2025 / © The artists / Photograph: C Callistemon, QAGOMA

'Great and Small'

Jun 2025 - May 2027

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