Yinimala Gumana
Gäṉgaṉ
103 x 31cm

ID: 2958-24

A sacred expanse of water behind the Gäṉgaṉ outstation where this bark was produced is referred to as Gulutji. The initial activities of Barama the great Ancestral Being for the Yirritja moiety took place here. After traveling from the seaside at Blue Mud Bay he emerged from the waters of Gulutji. Council was held with ‘Disciple’ Ancestors and Yirritja Law was ‘written’. From this place the Yirritja (equal side or moiety of a duality) nation spread as it traversed its country establishing clan estates and governing policy including language, ceremonial ritual and miny’tji (signature of sacred design of event and place). This area is described by the diamond shapes. The sacred design changes slightly to the Buyku or fishtrap area which is ‘company’ land shared by all the people who live by/sing the river. The Dhalwaŋu and allied groups who participate in this song cycle and fishing activity are hunting Baypinŋa (Saratoga) as does the Gany’tjurr (Reef Heron) which they identify with as the archetypal Yirritja hunter. The diamonds encased in strong vertical lines show the structure of the fishtrap made during Miḏawarr (early Dry Season) with Raŋan (paperbark) and wooden stakes. A principal totem for the Dhalwaŋu – Ḏakawa the freshwater crayfish witnessed these events and is said to have been instrumental in the creation of the sacred waterhole at Gulutji. Ancestral ‘giants’ of the species used their tails to keep the underwater entrance of this place clear, in doing so hiding the secret entrance by muddying or ‘contaminating’ the water by their actions. This stretch of the watercourse has elliptical shapes within it identifying that state. The varying states and movement of sacred water is pivotal to Yolŋu philosophies. The journey of freshwater down river to meet the salt, the tidal ebb and flow, the rough and the calm are the basis or rhythm of sacred manikay (ritual song). The mixing of fresh with saltwater is represented here by particular miny’tji, with mud taking on the metaphor of salt. Barama came from the saltwater, that capacity coming up through the freshwater. This sacred ‘contaminated’ freshwater flows from Gäṉgaṉ through the watercourse to the sea but in the Wet Season floods it breaks its banks and inundates the low coastal plain behind the beaches. It is from here that the water (soul) transmogrifies to vapour to enter the ‘pregnant’ Waŋupini (Wet Season storm clouds) which carry the life giving freshwater back to the start of the cycle.