The Bagu ceramics were created by Aboriginal artists from the Girringun Art Centre, a small town 200 km south of Cairns in Queensland. It was only in 2009 that the 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. They were traditionally made up of two parts, the Bagu (body) and the Jiman (stick). 

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, and had to ensure that it never went out, as the surrounding wood was usually damp. As well as cooking food, the fire was used to keep warm, make weapons and perform ceremonies. The Queensland Aborigines gave these planks an anthropomorphic shape in homage to the fire spirit - Chikka-bunnah - who, according to legend, threw burning sticks (jiman) across the sky. 

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 decided to use clay to express themselves. Despite the distances that separate the many Aboriginal peoples and their cultural differences, they are united by the same ability to create eminently contemporary works from a religious substrate whose origins go back several millennia.