Biography

Ethel Murray works at the Girringun Art Centre in Cardwell, a small town 200 km south of Cairns in Queensland.

It was only in 2009 that the Girringun artists revealed their work to the Australian public, at the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, where they were a huge success with both critics and collectors.

Bagu were originally fire boards. These objects had a sacred value because of the torrential rains that regularly fall in this tropical region. They were carried on the move by this nomadic people. Women were not allowed to handle them, and only one man designated by the group had exclusive responsibility for the fire, ensuring that it never went out.

The Queensland Aborigines gave these planks an anthropomorphic shape in homage to the fire spirit - Chikka-bunnah. While in the past they were made exclusively from wood, the artists at this art centre, who are constantly experimenting with new techniques, have recently chosen to use clay to express themselves.