A collaboration between several Aboriginal artists, marrum (overflowing) continues the stories told in Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones’ recent ground-breaking exhibition Bunha-bunhanga: Aboriginal agriculture in the south-east. Jonathan explains:

‘The Wiradjuri word, bunha-bunhanga, meaning ‘the abundance of food’, is used to describe the Country that south-east Aboriginal communities created – bountiful Country that has now been degraded by the introduction of western farming techniques and government mismanagement. In 1925 the Wiradjuri Elder and leader John Noble, also known as Marvellous, lamented that his once bountiful Country was a thing of the past. Noble, like many other survivors of the frontier, bore witness to unimaginable change. He would have known the old ways when Aboriginal people weren’t living on crumbs but enjoyed an abundance – an abundance of food and an abundance of resources, from which our communities drew strength.

Yet Country wasn’t a passive provider for wandering ‘hunter-gatherers’. Country rich in possums, fish and yams doesn’t happen by accident or by chance. It was achieved with precise knowledge and through generations of conditioning which ultimately resulted in the world’s oldest living cultures.’

The works in marrum (overflowing) speak not only to past abundance, but also attest the rich knowledge still alive in these artists and their communities, continuing to make cultural items celebrating the bounty of Country, just as the Old People did.

Aunty Kim Wandin
Dhangidj Binak (food basket) 2021
Spiny-headed mat rush, sedge, flax

Simon Briggs
nanyirr (yam sticks) 2021
used red ironbark and grey box

David Doyle
Bartii kulthi partii 2021
emu eggs depicting quandong (karnpuka), cumbungi, rosella, bush banana (garkala), and murnong

Coolamon 2021
wood

Jonathan Jones
murnang and wild parsnip 2019
bronze
foundry: Mal Wood Foundry

gayaa.galang (wooden shovels) 2019 / 2021
wood
gulaman.galang (coolamons) 2021
wood
walamwunga.galang (grindstones) 2021
stone
gudyi (bucket) 2021
wood, string

Jonathan Jones
with
Aunty Yvonne Koolmatrie
Gypsum seed containers 2019
gypsum, spiny-headed sedge (Cyperus gymnocaulos)

Aunty Julie Freeman
Water carriers 2020
Bangalow palm (Archontophoenix cunninghamiana), wood, string

Lachlan McDaniel
ganhay (digging stick)
wood

Uncle Roy Barker Snr
Coolamon 1987
wood
Private collection

Nici Cumpston
mira (bag) 1999
spiny-headed sedge (Cyperus gymnocaulos)

Unknown south-east Aboriginal artist
south-east Australia

Grindstones 1800s
stone

with native Kangaroo Grass (Themeda triandra), Weeping Grass/Meadow Rice Grass (Microlaena stipoides), Wheat Grass (Anthosachne scabra) seed, Silver wattle (Acacia retinodes) seed, Murnong (Microseris scapigera) seed, Quandong (Santalum acuminatum) seed, Bunya Pine (Araucaria bidwillii) nuts, and Sydney paper daisy (Xerochrysum bracteatum)

Courtesy the artists or otherwise stated