Artiste : Djambawa Marawili (1953)

Titre de l'œuvre : Baraltja

Format : 173 x 63 cm

Pigments naturels sur écorce d'eucalyptus

Provenance et certificat : centre d'art aborigene de Yirrkala

Référence de la peinture : 3707L

Explications sur cette œuvre :

This work was completed at Yilpara on Blue Mud Bay just a few months after Djambawa presided over the one year celebration of Yolngu victory in the Blue Mud Bay case in the High Court of Australia. Djambawa had been instrumental in bringing the Court case thirteen years earlier and in initiating the Saltwater Collection which was used as evidence in the claim. Baraltja is the residence of Burrut’tji (also known as Mundukul) the lightning serpent. It is an area of flood plains that drain into northern Blue Mud Bay…

The medium of this message is the deep horizon ocean. Although in the Dry Season there is no physical connection through water between the Dhalwangu clan Gangan River and their maternal granddaughter Madarrpa clan’s Baraltja Creek - in the Wet the inundation allows the possibility of water flowing from Gangan to emerge at Baraltja. This area is sung and painted by both clans because of the spiritual connection echoed by the physical reality. The colouring refers to Motu, the build up of red black and yellow , mangrove leaves in this mangrove creek. From Baraltja the waters migrate to Muŋurru the mighty undifferentiated Yirritja saltwater ocean that plays at the horizon which receives and unifies all the Yirritja coastal saltwaters in one. 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 rain on the escarpment of the Mitchell Ranges- the watershed and the start of the cycle.

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

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