16
Spirit beings
Both benign and malevolent, Arnhem Land spirits
are connected with particular places and events, and
often with the beginnings of life and with death. Their
presence is always respected and, at times, they are to
be feared and placated.
Nawurapu Wunungmurra’s deep understanding of
traditional law, inherited from his father, has enabled
him to experiment in the representation of unseen
spirits. The group of works entitled
Mokuy lukthun
(Spirit gathering)
2008, in the Gallery’s Collection,
comprises five Dhuwa and Yirritja moiety nanuk that
have entered the sacred ground at Balambala, a
meeting place for all the spirits. Each work represents
the various sounds of the yidaki (didgeridu) belonging
to each moiety group. Though they have no physical
form, they are represented here as skeletons to render
them visible — dancing and singing through the night
in preparation for their return to Buralku, the island
of the dead.
An important dreaming for Bob Burruwal, namorroddo
are connected with the powerful yabbadurruwa
ceremony in which he regularly participates. Though
Anniebell Marrngamarrnga
Kunwinjku people
NT b.1968
Yawkyawk (Female water spirit) pregnant with twins
2007
Wood, pandanus with natural pigments
266 X 67 X 2cm
Acc. 2007.253
Purchased 2007. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation
invisible, Burruwal has sculpted their physical form
after images painted in rock shelters in the Mann
and Liverpool Rivers district. Namorroddo can show
themselves as shooting stars, emanating light as they
travel across the night sky. They can also swoop from
the trees under the cover of dark and, using their long,
sharp fingers, take sickly babies and old people to their
death. In contrast, Terry Dhurritjini Yumbulul’s totemic
carving of Nguluwadu depicts a benign ancestor spirit
that guards the reef on Truant Island, part of the
artist’s country near Wigram Island. This underwater
site is of great significance as a place that infertile
women visit to request a child.
A work also associated with new life is Anniebell
Marrngamarrnga’s
Yawkyawk (Female water spirit)
(Pregnant with twins)
2007. Yawkyawk are enigmatic
freshwater mermaid-like beings with flowing seaweed
tresses, who inhabit streams and rock pools in the
heart of Kunwinjku stone country in western Arnhem
Land. Marrngamarrnga has woven fine pandanus
strands into a yawkyawk form in patterns suggesting
the movement of the figure through water. In reference
to their origins as human beings, the artist has placed
unborn twins in the swelling belly of her yawkyawk.
