Ngak Ngak's indigenous art connection - SMIRW

by Al Constable on 9 Sep 2008
At the 2008 Sunferries Magnetic Island Race Week, southern sailor Michelle Petrie has been helming in her first regatta aboard her dark blue hulled Beneteau 57 Ngak Ngak.

Ngak Ngak has finished second overall in the Cruising Non-Spinnaker division, a nice first up effort for Michelle.

Artist Ginger Reilly Munduwalawala painted the distinctive logo which has been emblazoned her side. The yacht’s name Ngak Ngak comes from the sound of the white-breasted sea eagle and is an indigenous name for that bird.

Michelle and her husband Hamish Petrie first came across Ginger’s work in a retrospective exhibition in the Victoria Gallery in Melbourne in 1977 and bought one of his pieces, which is hung on the boat.

The artist, Ginger Riley Munduwalawala* came from the coastal saltwater country of the Mara people. Born around 1937 at Ngukurr in the Northern Territory, Riley received his bush education and ritual instruction from his senior Mara relatives after his father died when he was just a child. He was very much a traditional man and believed his presence was confirmed by his ancestral myths and legends.

Ngak Ngak or the white breasted sea eagle appears regularly in Ginger’s work – either as a single or repeated image. Ginger believed the Ngak Ngak acted as a lookout watching over his mother country.

Michelle Petrie commented, ‘Sea Eagles are our favourite bird, we often see and hear them in the Whitsundays and right down as far as Pittwater, their call is a croaky Ngak Ngak.

'After the Magnetic Island series we are heading north to the Palm Island group, we’ve been told they are amongst the most picturesque in Australia, and we are hoping to see more Ngak Ngaks there.'

*Ginger Riley Munduwalawala was almost fifty before he began painting. Inspired after meeting the great watercolour artist Albert Manatjira, Riley realised the scenes and colours of his landscape could be captured in artworks.

In the late 1980's Riley returned to his home country and began to paint. In 1993 he won the First National Heritage Commission Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. In 1997 - 1998 Riley was awarded an Australian Council Fellowship and in 1997 the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, held a major retrospective of his work. Exhibits overseas included London and Cuba. Ginger Riley Munduwalawala died in 2002.

His paintings, bold and colourful in their presentation are highly regarded. Riley’s sense of colour distinguishes him from other indigenous Australian artists - he was called the 'Boss of Colour'.

About the white breasted sea eagle - Ngak Ngak.

The white breasted sea eagle is a bird of prey with a wing span sometimes exceeding 2 metres. It can weigh up to 4.5 kg. They are actually members of the kite family and snatch their prey from the surface or edge of the water. They are so powerful, that in flight, they can carry objects up to half their own weight. They can live up to 30 years.