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This article presents a broad overview of the life and artworks of Badmardi Aboriginal artist Nayombolmi (c. 1895-1967) from today's Kakadu National Park, the Northern Territory in Australia. The article pictures his life through oral history, photographs and some of his many artworks in the form of rock paintings, beeswax figures and bark paintings. It touches on how Nayombolmi and his father used rock art as an educational medium in the intergenerational transmission of traditional lore and law. Nayombolmi made close to 800 rock art figures, justly earning him the epithet 'the most prolific known rock art artist in the world'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rock art created in the recent past has often been interpreted as a passive reflection of Indigenous curiosity at newly introduced phenomena. However, more recent analyses have tried to refigure such depictions as active and innovative artworks with social and cultural roles to play. Likewise, most contact rock art studies identify and interpret contact rock art within the clan or group context -- as representations of a whole. In this paper, we broaden the conceptual framework around contact rock art to, where possible, embrace analyses of particular artists, their life biographies and legacies. By focusing on one known artist and his painting of a horse in western Arnhem Land, we draw together rock art studies, ethnography and Aboriginal life biographies to provide a more comprehensive understanding of Australian history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents and discusses a 1972 rock painting episode at Koongarra in Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory, Australia. This painting, which depicts a macropod, was created by Billy Miargu when he camped at a sandstone outlier with his wife and young daughter. It was documented by two rock art scholars, George Chaloupka and Robert Edwards, but interpreted as untraditional 'casual art'. Using a community-based approach, we re-evaluate this painting episode by (i) exploring the depicted subject matter from an emic perspective, demonstrating how it refers to the origin myth of an important ceremony, and, (ii) through interviews with the descendants of the artist, we discuss and investigate how the 1972 painting episode is commemorated and understood today. Our findings are grounded in contemporary discussion within anthropology and archaeology that explores multivocal Indigenous voices in the interpretation of material culture in general, and rock art in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Injalak Hill in western Arnhem Land is known for its extraordinary wealth of rock art imagery spanning thousands of years. This corpus of rock art speaks to the changing nature of life and culture in this region -- and to the skills of the many artists who added their marks over time. This includes artists working in the 'contact' period who continued to create rock art in the face of increasing incursions into their lands, disease, and frontier violence. Hidden within a secluded rock shelter on Injalak Hill, one particular rock painting tells a special story of culture contact. Nicknamed by Aboriginal Traditional Owners as the 'Buffaroo', it most probably represents an amalgamation of a traditional subject -- the kunj or kangaroo -- with a newly introduced animal - the nganaparru or water buffalo. In this paper, we argue that the Buffaroo represents a 'first-sight' painting - one that was produced before the artists became truly familiar with water buffaloes. This life-size painting most likely embodies a period of experimentation for Aboriginal artists before they had become fully acquainted with depicting this newly introduced animal in this region. Furthermore, this painting also hints at a process whereby nganaparru became integrated into artistic and cultural systems in northern Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the idea of Aboriginal artists experimenting with their depictions of introduced animals, such as buffalo, and painting represents an ongoing period of experimentation and innovation. Topics include how animals were integrated into existing cultural and artistic systems; and focus on rock art and anthropological research undertaken in western Arnhem Land.