Returning to Djakapurra’ – A Collection of Yirrkala Poles and Barks 2010

A Collection of Fine Yirrikala Artists Art

Returning to Djakapurra’ – A Collection of Yirrkala Poles and Barks 2010

A Collection of Fine Yirrikala Artists Art

Australian Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) artwork by BARAYUWA MUNUNGGURR of Buku-Larrnggay Mulka (Yirrkala). The title is Munyuku. [3667E] (Earth Pigments on Hollow Log) Australian Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) artwork by BARAYUWA MUNUNGGURR of Buku-Larrnggay Mulka (Yirrkala). The title is Munyuku. [3667E] (Earth Pigments on Hollow Log)
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BARAYUWA MUNUNGGURR

Munyuku
3667E
Earth Pigments on Hollow Log
 Munyuku | 3667E
Earth Pigments on Hollow Log
 215 x 0cm | 84.65 x 0in
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Barayuwa has done his mother’s Munyuku clan’s design, inspired by the late ritual specialist and artist Dula Ngurruwutthun. It is associated with the ancestral events relating to the death of the ancestral whale called Mirinyungu on the beaches of the Munyuku saltwater estate of Yarrinya within Blue Mud Bay.

In ancestral times, a whale called Mirinyungu was living in the ocean at Yarrinya. The whale, being Munyuku, was in its own country. Munyuku spirit men called Wurramala or Matjitji lived and hunted in this country. According to Yolngu kinship classifications, the whale is the ‘brother’ of these men. They killed their brother Mirinyungu, who eventually washed up onto the beach, contaminating it with blood and fat turning putrid. This is how the Wurramala found the whale on the beach. They used stone knives, Garapana. The tail severed from its body, the men then cut the body of the whale into long strips. In (self-)disgust they then threw the knives out to sea.

Within the design are the bones of the whale on the beach made sacred with the essence of Mirinyungu. The directions of the bands of miny’tji (sacred clan design) relate to the sacred saltwater of Yarrinya, the chop on the surface of the water and the ancestral powers emanating from it.

The whale’s tail is seen as Rangga, sacred ceremonial object, and employed in ceremony. The bonesof the whale are also said to have become a part of the rocks in the ocean. Bones are thought of as the essence of a person. From this description it is evident that the rock and the whale are combined in a spiritual manner which is extremely significant to Munyuku people. There may be some echo of a reference to a related Munyuku icon, the anchor - a symbol of rock-like foundation for the family.

Barayuwa has done his mother’s Munyuku clan’s design, inspired by the late ritual specialist and artist Dula Ngurruwutthun. It is associated with the ancestral events relating to the death of the ancestral whale called Mirinyungu on the beaches of the Munyuku saltwater estate of Yarrinya within Blue Mud Bay. In ancestral times, a whale called Mirinyungu was living in the ocean at Yarrinya. The whale, being Munyuku, was in its own country. Munyuku spirit men called Wurramala or Matjitji...