Edward Blitner and wife Michelle
Born: 1961
Area: Ngukkurr
Tribe: Marra/Alawa
Country: Naiyarindji
Clan: Barbil
Moiety: Mambali
Totem: Bandiyan
Medium/ Form:
Bark painting, ochres on bark, carved
and painted hollow log coffin, didjeridu.
Dupun, carving
Awards:
1998 Australian Aids Magazine "Blue Bell".
1999 First Prize Barunga Aboriginal cultural Festival "One Fire".
Interviews:
1999 Four Corners interview/world wide release.
Exhibitions:
1998 Telstra Aboriginal Art Awards, Darwin, NT.
1999 Spirits of the Dreaming exhibition, Darling Harbour Cultural
Centre. Promoted by the Today show. Sydney. NSW.
2000 Love Magic exhibition, Katherine Art Gallery, held at the
Australian Trust, Sydney. "G Spot"
Details
Edward started painting when he was seven years old. "My grandfathers, Fred, Gerry
and Donald would be painting or carving and we kids would sit around them
and watch them grind the ochre' s and mix the colours, after a while he would tell
us the story for that particular painting and also teach us the songs and dance for
that story. When he was in a very good mood, he let us paint the sides of the bark
painting, that was my start". Eddie has progressed as a highly recognized
contemporary artist. He has worked with the children of several schools and street
children teaching them his painting skills and techniques.
Edward Blitner is from Naiyalrindji and the community Ngukkurr on the Roper River,
which is approximately 270 km Southeast of Katherine, N.T. It is now called the Yugul
Mangl Community.Many good painters have emerged from that community and are
represented in most major Australian and overseas galleries.
It has taken Eddy 16 years to learn to paint the stories and the Dreamings, passed on
to him by his grandfather. Edward is also an accomplished woodcarver and didjeridu
maker. Some of Eddy's bird carvings stand 2 meters high and are fully decorated and
cross hatched.
Other members of his clan (Barbil) taught him how to make flint spear heads,
traditional hunting boomerangs and most important how to hunt, fish, find bush tucker
and make bush medicine to survive.
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