Artiste : Bandarr Wirrpanda (1980)

Titre de l'œuvre : Yalata

Etched Aluminium

Format : 90 x 60 cm

Provenance et certificat original : centre d'art aborigène de Yirrkala

Référence de la peinture : 1452-21

© Photo & text : Aboriginal signature with the courtesy of the artist, & Buku-Larrngay Mulka.

Explication de l’œuvre :

This work depicts early events during Ancestral (and present) times at Yalata close to the Dhudi-Djapu clan homeland of Dhuruputjpi (about three hours drive South West from Yirrkala). It is a coastal fringe area, this Dhudi Djapu homeland, that has territory leading up a river through plains country behind an area of coast on Blue Mud Bay.

The plain is tidal and during the wet seasons it is flooded by the rains and tidal surge creating areas of brackish water. During the dry season the grass and black earth dry out. Then the fires come, turning a swamp into a huge plain of cracked black earth.

Fresh water springs dot this sun baked plain forming small islands of vegetation and as Rarrandada (the hot time) builds the thirsty wayin (birds) come to these sacred springs in their thousands. The noise of the guḏurrku or dhaŋgultji (brolgas) and gurrumaṯji (magpie geese) are deafening, the mud scored with their tracks and the sky dark with the flocks of wheeling birds.

In Ancestral times, activities of Mäna the shark and the Djaŋ’kawu took place here.

The Djaŋ’kawu - the Dhuwa moiety Creator Beings, in naming this country for the Dhudi Djapu, created these sacred fresh water springfed waterholes by plunging their sacred digging sticks in the ground. Freshwater sprung from these wells as did a sacred goanna, a manifestation in some circles of the Djaŋ’kawu themselves.

Story has it that on surfacing the goanna saw the first sun rise. Also on the wet clays around the wells the goanna observed the footprints of Daŋgultji the Brolga. The prints of the Brolga passing from spring to spring are an echo and a present day manifestation of the Sisters who adopted the form of the brolga in their travels between springs as portrayed by the roundrel.

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