[1]Crusoe Kurddal was an artist, dancer, singer, and actor who lived and worked in Maningrida, an aboriginal community in central Arnhem Land of the Northern Territory of Australia.
[2] Originally from the Maningrida region of central Arnhem Land, the stories and depictions of the Mimih have been around locally for many years but sculptures are newer.
[3] Kurrdal made the switch to Yawkyawk figures because he believed they were more easily understood by non-Indigenous viewers as compared to his previous works that depicted sacred ceremonial iconography.
After the war, he began bark painting at Maningrida, but he finally relocated to Barrihdjowkkeng where he ultimately raised Crusoe and his brothers Owen Yalandja and Tim Wulanibirr.
[6] Kunningbul was the first and only Maningrida artist to depict Mimih figures in sculptural form from the 1960s to the 1980s, despite the subject being a commonplace in bark paintings from this area.
[6] Kurddal focused on creating the Mimih spirits and learned to carve these figurines in a similar way to his father, but he subsequently evolved the iconography in his own unique fashion.
During the mid 1980s, Kurddal was pushed and inspired to make larger sculptures than his father Crusoe Kuningbal, and now there are currently massive sized Mimih in many public art collections.
Many Kuninjku people started to carve comparable models in the late 1980s, but Owen Yalandja and Crusoe Kurddal are the most prominent pioneers in these sculptural depictions.
Being a talented dancer, Kurddal aimed to display the trickery and tomfoolery of this spirit in his own physical movements and sculptures by using the same sense of humor in his creations.
Since the 1980s, other Kuninjku people have been producing sculptures of similar figures because of Kuningbal and, later, his sons; however, Kurddal and Yalandja made the most innovative strides.
The artist's A Pair of Mimih Spirits, which Deutscher and Hackett sold in March 2010 for $9,000, received the highest price ever recorded.
The narrator describes the great warrior and tribal chief, Ridjimiraril (Crusoe Kurddal), with three wives—one jealous, one clever, and one beautiful.
[17] In addition to Ten Canoes, Crusoe Kurddal has also acted in the movies Australia and Mad Max: Fury Road.