Artiste : Rerrkirrwaŋa Munuŋgurr

Titre de l'œuvre : Gurtha

Pigments naturels sur écorce

Format : 61 x 33 cm

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

Référence de la peinture : 1300-19

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

Explication de l’œuvre :

This bark painting by Rerrkirrwaŋa Munuŋgurr (1971) depicts Gurtha. In ancestral times, the leaders of Yirritja moiety clans used fire for the first time during a ceremony at Ŋalarrwuy in Gumatj country. This came about as fire brought to the Madarrpa clan country by Bäru the ancestral crocodile, spread north and swept through the ceremonial ground. From this ceremonial ground the fire spread further to other sites. Various ancestral animals were affected and reacted in different ways. These animals became sacred totems of the Gumatj people and the areas associated with these events became important sites.

The creatures as cockatoo & Dugong are all associated with named sites which were burnt as the ancestral fire spread across the land. Where the sites described occur outside Gumatj clan country, the path of the fire represents important relationships held between these clans. The Gumatj clan design associated with these events, a diamond design, represents fire; the red flames, the white smoke and ash, the black charcoal and the yellow dust. Also the black skin, yellow fat, white bone and red blood of Gumatj people. Clans owning connected parts of this sequence of ancestral events share variations of this diamond design.

Collections :
2009 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Darwin NT - Winner Best Bark Painting.
Private collections.

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