Waterhole - Sugarbag Country - ABORIGINAL ARTIST: BARNEY ELLAGA (Collectors piece) 125cm x 196cm

Artist:  Barney Ellaga (Deceased)

Region:  Mamballi Country, SE Roper River, Northern Territory

Circa:  Born 1939-1941  Died 2015

Medium:  Acrylic on Belgium Linen

Completed:  Unknown

Title:   Waterhole - Sugarbag Country

Biography:

Barney Ellaga was a senior law man of the Alawa community in the Northern Territory.  He had intimate knowledge of his traditional homelands and it is this subject, Alawa Country, which his work most represents.

In a response to the land of his birth, Barney Ellaga used extraordinary colour compliments to contour Alawa terrains. His fresh approach gives impact and power to these abstract pieces and as a consequence his work is in high demand.

All of his artworks are visions of his land and country and had deep meaning for him.  Each line represents a different aspect of his country and some of the features came to him through his dreams.

His date of birth is not exactly known but somewhere between 1939-1941.  His Father was an Alawa man and his Mother, a Ngalakan speaker from Arnhemland.  Barney came from Mamballi country to the south of the Roper River region and lived at Hodgson Downs or Miniyerri, an outstation near Ngukurr, waterways and billabongs of the Cox River.  Like all artists in that region, he painted his Mother's country which centred around the waterways and billabongs of the Cox River.  His primary dreaming was "sugarbag" or native Bees that travel across the country.  It is his particular depiction of "sugarbag" that made his paintings unique.

Sadly Barney Ellaga passed away in 2015.

PLEASE NOTE:  THERE IS NO PHOTO OF THE ARTIST HOLDING THE ARTWORK.