Artiste : Noŋgirrŋa Marawili (1938)

Titre de l'œuvre : Lightning snake

Format : 211 x 78 cm

Provenance et certificat : Yirrkala

Référence de cette peinture : 4551K

Explications sur cette peinture Aborigène :

Noŋgirrŋa started life as one of the numerous children of Mundukul the Madarrpa warrior (c.1890-c.1950). He was a famed leader/warrior with uncountable wives of the Marrakulu, Dhudi Djapu and Galpu clans. She was a child of one of the four Galpu wives, Bulungguwuy. Life was a bountiful but disciplined subsistence amongst a working family group of closely related mothers, brothers and sisters. This was over fifty people! She was born on the beach at Darrpirra north of Cape Shield on the oceanside. But they were Wakir’ – camping- moving around. They went to Yilpara. They went to Djarrakpi. But their special place was Guwaŋarripa (Woodah Island). They were a fleet of canoes travelling all the way to Groote Island and back and forth from the mainland. They lived in this rich place. Their special spot on the mainland was Baratjula. A place to which she only returned after the creation of these paintings…

The looseness and large segments of plain colour,represent another departure. The strings of rough diamonds marks the classic miny’tji of the saltwater estate of Yathikpa.

Here Baru the ancestral crocodile, carrying and being burnt by the Ancestral fire crossed the beach from Garraŋali (crocodile’s nest) and entered the saltwater. Baru decided after being soothed of his burns that he would stay in these waters. His sacred powers in line with that of the fire imbues the water there today. There is also a graphic reference to the lightning which also arches over these waters from the Lightning Snake, Mundukul…

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© Photo : Aboriginal Signature Estrangin gallery with the courtesy of the artists & Yiirkala.