Lofty Bardayal Nadjamerrek

The artist has painted a story that comes from King River country called Wurngarnba. This area is well known for its salt-water mussels, ngarbarkan. It is protected by Namandc, a Devil man who will kill people who take the mussels from this sacred area. One day a family of Bininj (Aboriginal men) travelled to Wurngamba to collect mussels as they were hungry. One of them tried to open a mussel by cracking them together twice. The noise awoke Namande who appeared with his killing club to stop the men. In terror the Bininj dropped all the mussels and ran for their lives. The artist is a Kunwinjku man from Oenpelli in western Arnhem Land.