Michael Nona

The Garrum or Barramundi Cod is a very important fish in our culture. My Aka or grandmother told me about this fish. The fish are like husband and wife, and they stay together all their lives and dont separate. They get on well with each other and dont fight. They also live in the same place on the reef, and when we catch one – we always make sure we find the second one and get it too so its not lonely.  If a Badu woman wants to have beautiful children, she eats the head of the Garrum and takes the unbroken head bone and hangs it around her neck, so the skull touches her pregnant belly. As long as she does this for the whole pregnancy her child will be beautiful. If she does not – her child will not be beautiful.  All beautiful children on Badu have been made beautiful because of this.  My print shows the elders passing the story to each other – the story coming from the mouth and going to the ears, and then from the mouth again.. these are our ancestors and the story is shown to be passed down. The main fish – the Garrum has the pregnant mother and around the fish in the warm Badu currents the squid and other fish that the Garrum eats can be seen.  This is one of my largest prints. I have had it in a number of competitions, and it will be on display in Cairns after the Art Mob exhibition. I recently sold one in New York City – which was a first for us!