Click to enlarge- Region
- Arnhem Land
- Community
- Yirrkala
- Language group
- Yolŋu – Marrakulu clan
Milŋiyawuy, 2022
natural earth pigments on Stringybark (Eucalyptus tetradonta)
184 x 17 cm
$7,500
- Provenance
- Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala, NT, Cat No. 1851-22
- Artwork story
- Here the grandson of Nanyin has painted mythologies of Maŋgalili foundation that founded Djarrakpi and events that gave cause to this clan’s mortuary ceremony. Gaṉbilpil known as PJ is the son of renowned Maŋgalili artist Naminapu Maymuru- White and esteemed educator Leon White OAM. He has been strongly influenced by Nami in his representations of Maŋgalili art. PJ is a well-known musician and was guitarist for Eats Journey during their heyday. He now lives and works as a ranger protecting the homeland of Djarrakpi and associated Maŋgalili clan estates. It was in the wangarr, ancestral times, when the Guwak men, Munuminya and Yikawana, sitting under the shade of the sacred Marawili tree, instructed the ancestral koel cuckoo Guwak to lead the Maŋgalili people to this new place they had established for them at Djarrakpi (Cape Shield- the easternmost promontory into Blue Mud bay at the far south of the Miwatj region). Having seen the people settled in their new homeland they announced to the Maŋgalili their farewell, that they, the Guwak men were to travel out to sea, to a place in the sky and that they would become stars which would shine out of the night sky. So a canoe and paddles were made and their journey began by paddling down the Milŋiya River which flows into the Blue Mud Bay to the West of Djarrakpi. In the bay, at a place of significance, strong winds developed and a wake from the ancestral turtle capsized the canoe – the men drowned. At this place is the site of Yiŋalpiya, the freshwater crocodile's nesting place. This same place is the spirit source for Maŋgalili people. It is surmised by others that this event is either an ancestral tsunami or the inundation of the Gulf of Carpentaria at the end of the last Ice Age. The capsizing of this canoe and the death and metamorphosis of these ancestral spirits into another dimension founds mortuary practice for this clan. The basic narrative of a canoe capsized and resultant death is mirrored in companion clans the Maḏarrpa and Dhalwaŋu who also each occupy separate peninsulars which jut into Blue Mud Bay to the West. Each of these clans inter their dead in a special ceremony based around large sand sculpture called Yinapuŋapu. Whilst the songlines and stories and locations are different, the form of the narrative is similar involving the inundation and death of canoe hunters. This ceremony commemorates this ancestral event and liberates the spirit from its earthly form and frees it to continue its infinite cyclical journey. In the case of the Maŋgalil, the events of the incident are mapped in the voids of the Milky Way. The black shapes are more prominent to the naked eye in a clear Arnhem land night where the stars are a literal blanket in the absence of light pollution. The river of stars which is known by English speakers as the Milky Way is an analogue of the Milŋiyawuy River in an astral dimension. So, the Guwak men are identifiable but also the other elements of the songs. The Guwak sang in a tense which doesn’t exist in English. In 'everywhen' contemporaneous past/present/future. The songs they sang are the songs that are sung now which describe them singing themselves as they were capsized. They sing of the elements of the environment which sought to save them and of the Guwak declining that help. They were acceptant of their transformation into spirit form. These events are recorded in the dark voids within the Milky Way and the spirits of Maŋgalili follow this pathway to the infinite. A special log Milkamirri or Bandumul, containing mangrove worms offered itself as assistance. Ŋoykal the ancestral king fish is also manifest in this form. Even the rock cod they had caught for their journey offered assistance, as did Dhäla the sea creature. And măna the shark. It was to no avail however as the men had destined themselves as offerings, to the night sky where they and subsequent Maŋgalili soles are seen today in the Milky Way. These Maŋgalili souls attain their celestial position by means of possum fur string Burrkun that connects Djarrakpi at the site of the Marawili tree to night sky. Milŋiyawuy or Milŋiya as the Milky Way is also looked upon. Below is a transcription of what Naminapu has offered previously which gives a simplified outside interpretation of the songs: The night bird Guwak became lonely so he set out to find his friend Marrŋu, the possum, to talk to. During the day he found him in several places but Marrŋu would not talk to him because it was daylight. Ever since the Guwak only calls at night as he knows that this is the only time that Marrŋu will answer him. During his travels that day, as he flew along the coast, he saw the king fish Ŋoykal and feeling hungry called out, "Ŋoykal if you will jump out of the water onto the sand will give you some land." Ŋoykal did so and was gobbled up by the Guwak. At long last he came to Djarrakpi and in the moonlight, he saw the sacred tree on the cliff. As he was very tired it was with great relief that he landed in the top of the tree and noticed the Gunyan crabs playing in the sand at the foot of the cliff, running from their holes through the parallel lines of foam left by the ebbing tide. As he sat looking about, he heard a noise and realised Marrŋu was inside the hollow tree. He then sent Garanyirrnyirr, the cicada, down the tree with a message to Marrŋu who came up the tree to the Guwak and they spent the night talking about the sacred places of the Maŋgalili. They then sent Garanyirrnyirr with a massage to Nyapalinu (Ancestral spirit woman) and asked her to come with them into the Maŋgalili country. The possum travelled ahead and left a path for them to follow. Before the Guwak and Nyapalinu came together at Djarrakpi, when they met at the sacred possum tree (Ganyawu, the wild cashew tree) Guwak had already travelled extensively with Garanyirryirr his messenger, and named sacred places for the Maŋgalili. (Nyapalinu is a somewhat mystical being hovering in the background of the mythology; information about her is very sparingly given and only after many years of contact.) She taught the Yolŋu women many things; how to look for wild bulb ‘yoku' and prepare it for eating, how the make bark string and weave pandanus palm baskets. She came to the mainland from Groote Eylandt, travelling in a giant-sized bark water container with a band of specially trained spirit women known as Wurrathilaku, who eventually split up to become the different language and clan groups of the Yirritja moiety, including the Maŋgalili. A more important part of Nyapalinu's work was naming flora and fauna and making them Yirritja totems, naming sacred places and making maḏayin (Law). The digging stick (wapitja) which she made for stripping bark, is a very important symbol on the bark paintings as with this she made all the Yirritja waterholes.