Mundaguddah
“Growing up as a child, my Grandmother and all the old people would say ‘Don’t go near the water, or the Mundaguddah will get you’ – and it worked”
“We grew up next to the river, we were there all the time. We’d lived on the reserve all our lives, and the river is right there, so that was our go to place. We’d swim there, fish there, swim across to the weir. But always in the back of our minds, ‘Mundaguddah’ – particularly if there was a bit of a rise in the river, a bit of uncertainty, then you would be told not to go near the water, because the Mundaguddah would be there”
“I’ve heard it described as a serpent, sometimes even heard it connected to the rainbow serpent story, and its definitely got connections up in Kunya country, where my family came from. But all the rivers around here, the Warrego, the Paroo, they all have clans and people that belong there and they are all represented in Bourke, and they all have a story about the Mundaguddah. It may have different stories associate, but when you say that one word, it always means the same thing ‘stay out of the water’.”
“Those stories are important to our mob, and they kept us alive. In the simplest way, don’t be near a dangerous place, like the river, without supervision. The sculpture has a gaping maw-like mouth and thousands of teeth like a cod, it could swallow you whole.”
Brian Smith
Kunya
Polished Stainless Steel
Designed by Andrew Hull
Fabricated by Wangstone Studio