Datjuluma Guyula
Gunyan
Image Size: 30 x 26cm;

ID: 4000-26

As told by the artist:

Gunyan (ghost crab) are part of a manikay (dance) and buŋgul (song) about cleansing. In the ceremony we have a Yiŋapuŋapu in the sand. They dance for the two men Munuminya and Yikawaŋa. 

Datjuluma produced this work with reference to her mothers country at Djarrakpi which is at the base of Cape Shield, the northern perimeter of Blue Mud Bay. This Maŋgalili country is also site of one of the Ancestral ceremonial/burial grounds called the Yiŋapuŋapu.

The Yiŋapuŋapu is a low relief sand sculpture designed to keep any contamination of death at bay as traditionally the body of the deceased was placed within it for initial mortuary rites, to cleanse the bones of dangerous spirits held within the body tissue. A metaphor for this action of cleansing is utilised by the Maŋgalili in their sacred paintings by way of depicting Mirriya or Gunyan the sand or ghost crab picking the bones of a fish carcass on the beach. 

Image size: 30 x 26cm
Paper size: 40 x 35cm
Paper: Somerset