Nym Bunduck (abt. 1900 - 1981)

Born about 1900 in Port Keats, Northern Territory, Australia

Died 1981 at about age 81 in Northern Territory, Australia

Biography

Nym Bunduck is an Indigenous Australian.

Nym Bunduck, of the Aboriginal Murrinh-patha language group was born about 1904 at Port Keats and was to become a notable international artist^[1]. His Aboriginal name was Wudungari, and he was to have 5 wives with children to all of them, but no names, except for his son Felix's mother as Tulba, or timing is given in this source (Ivory, 2009, p.231). However, Puzey and Kostamski (Eds.), (2006) have that Bunduck is an anglicised version of the Aboriginal personal name of Nym's apical ancestor 'Parntak'. This has become a common practice in some Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory to give them a 'surname' for birth, marriage and death records.

At the time of his birth, the region was still part of the Colony of South Australia not having become the 'Northern Territory' until 1911. The location of Port Keats is on the north coast, 230 kms southwest of Darwin between the Daly and Fitzmaurice Rivers. Port Keats was named by Captain P. King-7868, R.N., who on a voyage to survey parts of the northern and western coastline of Australia, on 5 September 1819 found himself at Tree Point the entrance to an inlet with sufficient depth for his small vessel ‘Mermaid’ to anchor, even when the tide dropped 20 feet. He named the inlet Port Keats in honour of Vice-Admiral Richard Goodwin Keats – later to become Sir Richard Goodwin Keats-365 (1757-1834)^[2]. It was known locally as Werntek Nganayi.

Thanks to Paul Mackett and his compilation of the 1968-1969 Census data for the Port Keats region^[3], we have firstly that Nym 'Bunduck' was born 1900, that his Aboriginal name was Bandak, and he was of the Murinbada tribe. His first surviving child, or resident at Port Keats at Census time was Rita (European name) Toitkaim (Aboriginal name) born in 1929 to his 2nd wife, Wurrkadki born 1916. He had 2 children born in 1932, Stephen Ninnet to his 2nd wife, and Nellie Ngamur to his 1st wife, Kurrungga born 1914. His 4th wife, Polly Linta born 1921, had a son Theodore Palarda in 1936 but was deceased at the time of the Census. Then came Felix Yambunyi, born 6 March 1938, the only child listed of his 3rd wife Biddy Tulba born 1910. Seven more children, born from 1940 to 1959, are listed of his 4th wife, Polly, 3 boys (one stillborn) and 4 girls, the former including Kevin Kanalda (b.10.8.1942), and Alan Nguramilyen (b.16.11.1951).

Apart from having 2 wives and 3 children, little seems to be known about his life before the arrival, in 1935, of Father Richard Docherty, a Catholic Missionary, to establish a mission at Port Keats to halt the drift of Aboriginal people away from their traditional lands, offer sanctuary from violent frontier conflicts, promote Christianity and discourage Murrinh-Patha ceremonial practices. Father Docherty was accompanied by William Edward Hanley Stanner-17, a young anthropologist continuing his studies of the Muribata people in the region, whom he had first met on the Daly River, whose traditional lands extended inland, southwards from the Port Keats area. The mission was on Nym Bunduck's traditional land. They arrived on 20 June 1935^[4]with a detailed account in that source.

Conflict had started after the founding of the port of Darwin in 1869, with pastoralists establishing cattle stations, mining activity was underway and agricultural enterprises were starting up, to the east and south of Port Keats (Bill Ivory, 2009, Ch.3, pp.167-179). However, by the time Docherty and Stanner arrived most of these activities were failing, Stanner describing how even the nomadic traditional owners were finding it difficult to get enough food to survive in their traditional ways. By 1938, even the mission was moved 10 miles further inland to Wadeye due to lack of sufficient fresh water and for other reasons^[5].

When Bill Stanner first met Nym Bunduck, they became friends. Stanner asked Bynduck if he would produce some paintings to illustrate traditional law. It is not clear whether this was at their first meeting or occurred much later, in 1950, when the former showed the latter a map of the traditional lands^[6], (also ref.1), and Bunduck used that style. One example is the bark painting titled 'Emu feeding' by Nym Bunduck and his son Kevin, painted in 1961^[7]. The reference shows their beautiful work and gives a detailed description of it.

In the late 1950s, Nym Bunduck a Murrinhpatha man of the Kardu Diminin clan and other senior men ... produced paintings for the Port Keats Mission Church in acknowledgement of it as ‘a special place’. The result was a group of extraordinary paintings located behind the altar in the Old Church revealing and concealing Aboriginal religious knowledge of their creator ancestors and the rites of a cult^[8].

No details of his death have been found so far and it is assumed that he passed on in the Northern Territory.

Sources

1. ↑ https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/bunduck-nym/
2. ↑ http://www.radarreturns.net.au/archive/Port%20Keats.pdf
3. ↑ http://www.cifhs.com/ntrecords/ntcensus/portkeats.html
4. ↑ http://missionaries.griffith.edu.au/mission/port-keats-mission-1935
5. ↑ https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/nt/YE00004
6. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadeye,_Northern_Territory
7. ↑ https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/IA22.1961/
8. ↑ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282620554_The_Significance_of_Continuity_and_Change_Understanding_and_Preserving_Aboriginal_Catholic_Church_Art_in_Wadeye

• Guy Puzey, Laura Kostamski (Eds.), 2016, 'Names and Naming: People, Places, Perceptions and Power'. Multilingual Matters.
• Bill Ivory, 2009, 'Kunmangurr, Legend and Leadership: A Study of Leadership and Succession focussing on the northwest region of the Northern Territory of Australia', Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Charles Darwin University.