Artist: Gawirrin Gumana | Title: Baraltja Monuk | Year: 2008 | Medium: natural pigments on bark | Dimensions: 175 x 65 cm
PROVENANCE
Buku-Larrngay Mulka, Yirrkala NT, Cat No. 3377L
ARTWORK STORY
The artist of this work is the son of the late Birr'kitji. Birr'kitji had another son from the Madarrpa clan, Wakuthi. The relationship the Dhalwanu has with the Madarrpa is very strong, a relationship called Mari Gutharra, a relationship that explains among other things obligations one has for each other's rites to land and the lore that gives Yonlgu title to it. For the land, Mari Gutharra, is the relationship Yongu has with his mothers mother's land. In Gawirrin's case, his half brother Wakuthi's country at Baniyala is his Mari country.
Gawarrin was the most senior active artist of the entire Yirritja moiety of north east Arnhem Land when he painted this work, with the great Wakuthi no longer producing his works of the sacred Madarrpa art as he had passed in 2005.
Gawirrin's work is represented in the major collections - paintings that he did under his father's direction and tuition whilst a relatively young man during the late fifties and sixties. Many early works of his were collected and placed in the 'Groger Wurm' collection that are now housed at the National Museum. He also assisted his father in the Dhalwanu sections of the 'Yirrkala Church Panels' as well as the Madarrpa people's mythological designs as Wakuthi and his family were unable to be at Yirrkala at the time these monumental works were produced. At times, Gawirrin was called to represent his people at various functionary do's where his quiet voice, in minimalistic English, held his audience in a state of reverence. He had been heard to say 'I am Gangan, I am the freshwater, I am of the mud.'
Mundukul or Burrut'tji is the Lightning SNake revered by several of the Yirritja clans. For the Madarrpa and the Dhalwanu, Mundukul connects the two clans through the medium of water, sky and land. This land is referred to as Baraltja. The snake is seen in the landscape as a sandbar across the mouth of this estaurine outflow.
Baraltja is plains country behind the shores of Blue Mud Bay, close to the Dhalwanu coastal areas of Garraparra. The Madarrpa clan claim ownership to this country but the ancestral activity that took place there is sanctified ritually by both the Madarrpa and the Dhalwanu, by similar but different sacred song cycles and dance.
Water from the Gangan River flows into the Baraltja from Gulutji at Gangan. Baraltja is also affected by contamination of saltwater from tidal surge. This water from the expanse of Blue Mud Bay is represented her by the long elliptical shapes that are 'calmed' as it surges inland with the tide to the floodplains, home of Mundukal. From the onset of the wet season, the freshwaters run onto these same floodplains. The Serpent tastes the new season's water with its forked tongue and stands on its tail to spit lightning into the skies, back towards where these sacred waters come from. This action is a metaphor for explaining connections to land and sea country with associate clan groups. Water from country, through country to another, mixing, Mundukul heralds the beginning of the impending 'Wet' - communicating with anvil shaped clouds and storm fronts with lightning, in this painting's case back to Gangan and the other way back to sea and to other Yirritja moiety groups towards Numbalwar (who have their own lightning snakes who are also communicating this way with Mundukul).
Baraltja is also a land associated with fertility as it is a meeting place of waters. As the two waters meet at Baraltja, they form a brackish mix with the water from the sea denoting the feminine or mother, and the fresh the paternal aspect. The circularity of the current of power that passes through this place is shown here where the forked tongues of Mundukul meet. His need to spit lightning towards the clouds on the horizon which are full of Wet Season rain (sucked up from the sea), is triggered by the water coming down the freshwater systems to the salt. And so the cycle of life continues with a person's spirit travelling from the carnate to the inchoate and back to life again and so on. This 'life force' that is at the seat of Yolngu law and philosophy is shown here as the white dots in the same way that air bubbles rise up in water.
Baliny is the public name used by the Yolngu for the fish barramundi. It has other deeper names - sacred of a secret nature because of reference to the enigmatic nature of a Yirritja Creator Ancestor and the ability for the fish to be androgynous, going upstream, from salt to fresh to spawn and changing its sex. Yolngu often depict Baliny in their art as a companion to another creator totem, in this case Burrut'tji. Baliny is strongly associated with this place Baraltja.
PROVENANCE
Buku-Larrngay Mulka, Yirrkala NT, Cat No. 3377L
ARTWORK STORY
The artist of this work is the son of the late Birr'kitji. Birr'kitji had another son from the Madarrpa clan, Wakuthi. The relationship the Dhalwanu has with the Madarrpa is very strong, a relationship called Mari Gutharra, a relationship that explains among other things obligations one has for each other's rites to land and the lore that gives Yonlgu title to it. For the land, Mari Gutharra, is the relationship Yongu has with his mothers mother's land. In Gawirrin's case, his half brother Wakuthi's country at Baniyala is his Mari country.
Gawarrin was the most senior active artist of the entire Yirritja moiety of north east Arnhem Land when he painted this work, with the great Wakuthi no longer producing his works of the sacred Madarrpa art as he had passed in 2005.
Gawirrin's work is represented in the major collections - paintings that he did under his father's direction and tuition whilst a relatively young man during the late fifties and sixties. Many early works of his were collected and placed in the 'Groger Wurm' collection that are now housed at the National Museum. He also assisted his father in the Dhalwanu sections of the 'Yirrkala Church Panels' as well as the Madarrpa people's mythological designs as Wakuthi and his family were unable to be at Yirrkala at the time these monumental works were produced. At times, Gawirrin was called to represent his people at various functionary do's where his quiet voice, in minimalistic English, held his audience in a state of reverence. He had been heard to say 'I am Gangan, I am the freshwater, I am of the mud.'
Mundukul or Burrut'tji is the Lightning SNake revered by several of the Yirritja clans. For the Madarrpa and the Dhalwanu, Mundukul connects the two clans through the medium of water, sky and land. This land is referred to as Baraltja. The snake is seen in the landscape as a sandbar across the mouth of this estaurine outflow.
Baraltja is plains country behind the shores of Blue Mud Bay, close to the Dhalwanu coastal areas of Garraparra. The Madarrpa clan claim ownership to this country but the ancestral activity that took place there is sanctified ritually by both the Madarrpa and the Dhalwanu, by similar but different sacred song cycles and dance.
Water from the Gangan River flows into the Baraltja from Gulutji at Gangan. Baraltja is also affected by contamination of saltwater from tidal surge. This water from the expanse of Blue Mud Bay is represented her by the long elliptical shapes that are 'calmed' as it surges inland with the tide to the floodplains, home of Mundukal. From the onset of the wet season, the freshwaters run onto these same floodplains. The Serpent tastes the new season's water with its forked tongue and stands on its tail to spit lightning into the skies, back towards where these sacred waters come from. This action is a metaphor for explaining connections to land and sea country with associate clan groups. Water from country, through country to another, mixing, Mundukul heralds the beginning of the impending 'Wet' - communicating with anvil shaped clouds and storm fronts with lightning, in this painting's case back to Gangan and the other way back to sea and to other Yirritja moiety groups towards Numbalwar (who have their own lightning snakes who are also communicating this way with Mundukul).
Baraltja is also a land associated with fertility as it is a meeting place of waters. As the two waters meet at Baraltja, they form a brackish mix with the water from the sea denoting the feminine or mother, and the fresh the paternal aspect. The circularity of the current of power that passes through this place is shown here where the forked tongues of Mundukul meet. His need to spit lightning towards the clouds on the horizon which are full of Wet Season rain (sucked up from the sea), is triggered by the water coming down the freshwater systems to the salt. And so the cycle of life continues with a person's spirit travelling from the carnate to the inchoate and back to life again and so on. This 'life force' that is at the seat of Yolngu law and philosophy is shown here as the white dots in the same way that air bubbles rise up in water.
Baliny is the public name used by the Yolngu for the fish barramundi. It has other deeper names - sacred of a secret nature because of reference to the enigmatic nature of a Yirritja Creator Ancestor and the ability for the fish to be androgynous, going upstream, from salt to fresh to spawn and changing its sex. Yolngu often depict Baliny in their art as a companion to another creator totem, in this case Burrut'tji. Baliny is strongly associated with this place Baraltja.