Collection: 'Tjungai' | Barney Ellaga

13 May - 31 May 2025

Barney Ellaga was a senior law man and custodian of the Alawa language group in Central Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. He had unsurpassed, intimate knowledge of his traditional homelands and it is this subject, ‘Alawa Country’ and the creation stories associated with it, that his work most represents.

Barney Ellaga was the Tjungai or cultural policeman for the Alawa people. His position was to ensure cultural maintenance and adherence to cultural law associated with ceremony and traditional practices. He is considered the last of the lawmen for his people. The knowledge and position within the group is passed from father to son, or alternatively to another that has been through the highest echelons of ceremony. As his sons predeceased him and there was no one to pass this knowledge on to, a tradition dating back through the millennia died with him.

In a response to the land of his birth Barney used extraordinary colour compliments to contour Alawa terrains. His fresh, innovative and dynamic approach gives impact and power to his imagery. Abstraction blends with figuration and traditional iconography to form an art style that is both unique and individual. Untrained in composition or colour theory, Ellaga had no knowledge of or interaction with contemporary art styles or artists. As such his work is completely innovative and developed through his own sense of colour and intuition.

Barney Ellaga was above all else an accomplished colourist. His paintings are vibrant, pulsing fields which move with an almost incandescent, phosphorous quality. The brush was heavily loaded from the edge of the image and slowly dissipated as he moved towards the center of the canvas. This technique created a luminous effect that has light emanating from multiple points around the canvas. 

Since the introduction of acrylic paints and canvas, Aboriginal art and design has evolved from traditional symbolism representing ceremonial ritual and story to an international phenomenon exploring the realms of contemporary abstraction. Barney mastered this introduced medium.

Sadly, Barney Ellaga passed away in August 2015.