Kamor Aboriginal Art
History and Culture

Aboriginal art, history and culture of the Kamor people from the Daly River region in the Northern Territory.

Arthur is an elder of the Kamor tribe who are traditional owners of the Daly River region.

This is his story

When cane toads arrived they wiped out nearly all the goannas, which were the main food of the Kamor people.

The Kamor peope were also said to be extinct, but we are not extinct but growing in numbers, and are now 5 generations strong since they first said we were extinct.

Now the goanna is nearly extinct, but we hope they grow in numbers as we have.

The paintings are to tell our story obout our country and the animals that represent our dreaming and places. They also tell the story of our people's struggles since the arrival of Europeans in the Daly area

Old people used to look for turtle on the side of the billabong. There are many turtles in the Daly River. Turtles are the main tucker for the Kamor people, as they used to hunt them by poking sticks in the swamp grass out in the open and in the dry mud. When they pulled the turtle out of the mud they would see the snakesitting in the water waiting for the turtle to return.

Goanna painting depicts a family of a man and woman with a child and a dingo hunting the male and female goanna and their eggs. The goanna is a traditional food for the Kamor people and are in danger of becoming extinct since cane toads have invaded the area.

The dreamtime story of the Snake and Turtle

The snake and the turtle live in the billabongs. The snake provides for the turtle by crushiong food for the snake and in return the turtle carries the snake on it's back through the water.

Curlew Dreaming Story.

In the dreamtime the curlew was an aboriginal woman who lost her child and then was reincarnated as a curlew and now you can still hear her cries in the night as she searches for her baby. The painting shows the hand of mothers who use leaves to cover the tracks their babies leave in the sand around the camps so the curlew doesn't find them while searching for her own baby.