Galurruŋu Marawili
Dugong
62cm x 23cm

ID: 2562-24

Madarrpa clan hunters Yikuwaŋa and Nurruguyamirri left the shores of Yathikpa in Yalwarr, the canoe constructed of paperbark, native bees wax, bush timbers and string. Their destination was Woodah Island, to see a brother in law. They were to collect from him hunting paraphernalia for fishing, principally fishing hooks of carved hard wood attached to bush string lines. large shells for bailing unwanted water coming into the canoe and turtle shell for impending barter.

Successful in this they paddled off from Woodah Island in search of good fishing grounds.

Once off shore on seeing Dugong they pursued it to harpoon. In this area of saltwater was another sacred site of fire – a submerged rock Marrtjala also known as Nimarrki surrounded by turbulent and dangerous water. It was here at Dhakalmayi that the Dugong took shelter to escape the hunters. The action of the flung harpoon towards the Dugong, hence the rock, enraged the powers that be, causing these dangerous waters to boil from sacred fires from underneath. The waters arose and inundated the land. This is sometimes called an ancestral tide and it is speculated that this is the oral tradition of an ancient tsunami which initiates death and founds existing mortuary ceremonies in the region like the sacred sand sculpture Yiŋapuṉapu which is a canoe shaped space which holds the contaminaton of decay at bay.

The canoe capsized, both drowning and burning the Ancestral Hunters with their canoe and hunting paraphernalia. The harpoon, rope, paddles and canoe are sung at ceremony and manifestations of these objects are used as restricted secret sacred objects in ceremony today. This pole is a manifestation of Dhakandjali the harpoon and is itself depicted on the pole in this form.

 Djunuŋguyaŋu the dugong are associated with this site, attracted by sandy sea beds that grow the sea grass called Gamaṯa that they graze. The crosshatched design in this painting is the sacred clan design for the Maḏarrpa representing saltwater and fire here and is a manifestation of the sacred waters and Gamaṯa waving like flames below the surface.

 The water cycle mirrors that of the spirit and death is thwarted by the transformation from saltwater to ether when vapour is formed into clouds made of life giving freshwater to be born again once rain hits the escarpment country behind the coast.  The cycle continues. The wavy ribbin like pattern underlying denotes the Yirritja ocean Mungurru formed from the three adjacent Yirritja moiety clan estates- Manggalili, Madarrpa, Dhalwangu.

 So the harpoon travels, floating between related clan estates in the waters of Blue Mud Bay. Estates are connected spiritually in a multi directional way – both to and from, a cyclic phenomenon which is chronicled in the sacred songs that narrate these Ancestral actions over land, through the sea and ether.