Wanapati Yunupiŋu
Garraŋali
50.5 x 33cm

ID: 8054-25

“This is the crocodile, the Bäru going to the Garraŋali, the crocodiles nest. The yellow is a tunnel in the Gurtha, the ancestral fire. It is the river coming out to the sea. The crocodile is moving to where all the ŋatha (food) is. It is travelling for the food to get turtle, fishes, pigs and kangaroo. The crocodiles take all their food back to the nest to feed the kids. They are travelling everywhere through freshwater and through saltwater.”

In ancestral times, the leaders of Yirritja moiety clans used fire for the first time during a ceremony at Ŋalarrwuy in Gumatj country. This came about as fire brought to the Maḏarrpa clan country by Bäru the ancestral crocodile, spread north and swept through the ceremonial ground. From this ceremonial ground the fire spread further to other sites. Various ancestral animals were affected and reacted in different ways, and these animals became sacred totems of the Gumatj people and the areas where these events took place became important sites. 

The Gumatj clan design associated with these events, a diamond design, represents fire; the red flames, the white smoke and ash, the black charcoal and the yellow dust.  Also the black skin, yellow fat, white bone and red blood of Gumatj people. 

 
Image size: 50.5 x 33cm
Paper size: 67 x 49 cm
Paper: Hahnemuhle