DHAMBIT MUNUNGGURR

Dhambit lives and paints in her mother’s ancestral country in the community of Gunyaŋara which was an island but was joined to the mainland by a causeway when it served as a Catalina Flying Boat base during World War II. It was from here, in Melville Bay, that raids were conducted into occupied Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), Southern China, the Phillipines and Brunei. Prior to this, the Bay was a marŋarr or harbour for Maŋgatharra (Makassan) treḏang fishers for over 400 years. The tamarind trees, cooking stations and graves still mark this history. Dhambit’s husband Antoine was a peripatetic French sailor who arrived in the Miwatj (Sunrise- East Arnhem) region around 1999. He fell in love and his twenty-metre yacht still sits in their backyard. These international connections are relevant to the artworks in this show ’The Earth is Blue’. The works on paper have already traversed the globe. They were made to be exhibited in a non-commercial exhibition at the Australian Embassy, Paris in 2024. Although they were shown in her husband’s homeland, she was not able to see them due to the difficulties of travel as a wheelchair bound person with strong nicotine cravings! But she will be attending the show in Sydney with Antoine so the big blue circle will be completed.