Naminapu Maymuru-White
Wapitja
150cm

ID: 3384Y

This is a Wapitja or digging stick which belongs to ,and at the same time represents, the mystical female ancestral being Nyapiliŋu and the country that she is connected to. As Maŋgalili woman of the Yirritja moiety Galuma is the heir of sacred feminine knowledge spread by this force as she moved across the country from Groote Eylandt to central Arnhem land. A ceremonial sand sculpture, known as Yingapungapu, used to mother, confine, release the essence and spirit of the Maŋgalili people and realm at mortuary exists here on the beach between the sea and the perched lake. She carries on her head Wutjumunggu in which she gathers fruits such as Munydjutj (wild plums) or Yoku (Lily bulbs). The possum fur string which she wore in a cross shaped arrangement across her chest is a signature of hers. It connects her to the cycle of water from oceanic saltwater on the horizon turning to vapour and being absorbed by the Wet Season thunderheads pregnant with life giving freshwater and then raining and flowing through the small creeks to the sea and then out to the ocean again. A metaphor for the infinite journey of the Maŋgalili spirit.