Sambo Djambu Burra Burra

Tribe: Wagilak
Area: Arnhem Land
Born: 1946-2005

Sambo Burra Burra also known as Djambu Barra Barra, has seven works in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Australia. He is regarded as one of the leading Ngukurr artists. Sambo combines various bark painting techniques of the area, namely crosshatching and x-ray style. His stories are of epic hunts, mortuary and circumcision Dreamings and other men’s stories. Sambo’s wife is another recognised Ngukurr artist, Amy Johnson Jirwulurr.

Sambo’s paintings depict the killing and handling of large game that must be undertaken according to prescribed ritual procedures.

As a hunter and meat provider, Sambo is as an acute observer of nature and the animals are accurately drawn, complete with internal organs which have ritual meaning.

Artists generally paint their own animal ancestral beings, so that even simple images of individual animals have religious meaning.

Collections

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Museum and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1987 4th national Aboriginal Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
Holmes a Court, Perth.