Artiste : Mulkun Wirrpanda (1942-2021)

Titre de l'œuvre : Ranyiranyi

Format : 93cm x 112cm

Provenance et certificat : Yirrkala

Référence de cette peinture : 812-16

Explications sur cette peinture Aborigène :

This story takes place in Dhudi-Djapu clan country that was transformed by the principal creator beings for the Dhuwa moiety - the Djang’kawu.

They passed through the plains country of Yalata towards where the Dhudi-Djapu live today at Dhuruputjpi. These the Djang’kawu, two Sisters with names in this country of Ganaypa and Banyali, sang the brolga Dhangultji as they went with their walking sticks -Wapitja. With these they dug waterholes as they went, naming, thus sanctifying them with special qualities. Today they retain these same qualities for the Yolngu, the water and knowledge that surfaces from these wells by their actions are sung in ceremony for this country.

The sacred clan design throughout this painting declares ownership of this country from Yalata to Dhuruputjpi for the Dhudi-Djapu. The ribbons of red white and yellow hatching refer to the freshwater that flows from the water holes of this area that is aflood during the wet.

But here Mulkun tells a story of grave menace:

A Dhudi-Djapu family was living at Garrangali. The man and his wife had 5 daughters, they were all beautiful. The parents went hunting one day for stingray at Bulkawuy leaving their daughters behind. Then there was the man Gurrutjurrtjurr lurking, he thought he would go and join with those young girls and started to make jokes with them. He wanted them to run a race to see who was the fastest. The course was set and Gurrutjurrtjurr set them off. The course had the girls run out then around past where Gurrutjurrtjurr lay in wait. The eldest of the sisters was the fastest and the one he felt keenest towards. He grabbed her as she ran past and bundled her of to his place which was over the other side from Garrangali at Garrawadwuy. Here he kept her locked up.

The remaining girls told their father on his return that their sister was taken by Nyela (Gurrutjurrtjurr’s other name) to his camp. Ranyiranyi the name of the eldest girl was fearful, alone and sad imprisoned in the dark in Gurrutjurrtjurr's paperbark dome shelter.

The father was outraged and started a ceremony to bring his daughter back - a powerful performance intoning her name and willing her to turn into a bu􀀄erfly (Bonba or Ranyiranyi). Gurrutjurrtjurr is now seen as the Whistling Kite.

So she did and was able to escape through the small cracks of her confinement and fly back like an angel, with beautiful face and wings of a bu􀀄erfly to her family.

Her artworks are in the following prestigious collections :

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney NSW
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide SA
Artbank, Sydney NSW
Berndt Museum, University of Western Australia, Perth WA
British Museum, London, UK
Buku-Larrnggay Mulka - Saltwater - Yirrkala Bark Paintings of Sea Country
Charles Darwin University Art Collection
Holmes a Court Collection
Kerry Stokes Larrakitj Collection, WA
National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour, Sydney NSW
National Museum of Australia, Canberra ACT
RMIT University Art Collection

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© Photo & text : Aboriginal Signature Estrangin gallery with the courtesy of the artists, & Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre