Maramali Weaving and Ceramics by Anna Duncan and Tibby Duncan brings together a collection of bowls, weavings, baskets, wall hangings and more.

From an artist statement by Anna Duncan:

ngadaa maal gunagala

My work comes from the understanding that under one sky, we are all one.

Ngadaa  means under, maal means one and gunagala means sky. From this comes the idea of one creator, one Bulurru, one law, one Burugu—one Dreaming or Dreamtime—and one Jubane, one spirit.

The cosmos and the universe—space, time, stars, galaxies and planets—are all part of Maal gunagala. There is an energy that is constantly moving, like the movement of walking throughout one’s life.

From nothing comes something. From darkness comes light.
Creation and Dreaming come from the Dreamtime, Bulurru.

As a Gomeroi woman, my worldview is that everything coexists. There is belonging, connection and relationship throughout the natural world. 

Bunuma, Mother Earth, and wallaba, Country, are part of this understanding. Djuwan, the dirt and the ground, represents home, place and Country. When we speak of death, there is no death in an absolute sense, because the spiritual connection remains through Country.

Within the natural world, everything exists as a whole.
Yarra, the sun, gives life, warmth and energy.
Gilay, the night sky, is associated with the stars and water.
Gali is water and Djuwan is the land. These two halves make one.

There is darkness and light, fire and water, earth and air. Fire is heat, water is cold. These relationships speak to the balance within the natural world, but also within ourselves.

A story within this work is represented on ironbark. It tells the story of my father’s Dreaming. His inherited totem is Thulu, the tree, and Thulai is of the land. The tree is rooted in the ground, and those roots travel throughout Country.

My clan group on my father’s side is Dhirranai, associated with a place of high ground. Looking south towards Narrabri are the Nandewar Ranges, with Mount Kaputar as their highest point.

Thulu is the tree, but it is also a message stick. Marama means place.

The ochres in the work also come from the ground: yellow, guwini; white, Daurawa; and charcoal, nee, from the fire.

If you look at our hands, you can see the veins in our bodies. Our veins and arteries are a mirror image of our bagas, our rivers and waterholes. They are connected to Gali, the water that runs throughout Wallaba, Country, and forms our life force.

Water comes first. It is like women, creation and birth. Water comes first when a child is born, and then it flows throughout Country, just as the waters flow down from the mountains.

Across Country there are different language groups, nations and clans. The rocks and landscape determine which Country you are on. They are markers throughout the land.

Gunungali, the sky, can be understood as a clock or as the seasons. When there is a change in the air—what we call mayra—you can feel it, and it tells you the seasons are changing.

We are the same, but different.

My message stick from myself to you is this: for everything that exists that we cannot see, when we allow ourselves to stop, be still and listen, we understand that we are part of a spiritual landscape, and those who came before us continue to hold the balance.