Artiste : Noŋgirrŋa Marawili (1938)

Titre de l'œuvre : Mundukul / Burrut'tji - Lightning snake

Format : 170 x 64 cm

Provenance et certificat : Yirrkala

Référence de cette peinture : 4555X

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…

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. It is on country belonging to the Madarrpa and denotes an area of special qualities pertaining to fertility and the mixing of waters.

From Madarrpa (and Dhalwaŋu clan) land freshwater spreads onto the Baraltja flood plains with the onset of the Wet. A tidal creek into the Bay flows with the freshwater flushing the brackish mix into the sea over an ever shifting sandbar (the snake manifest). The deep hole that he lives in is Lorr.

Freshwater enters the tidal mud flats at Baraltja that is residence of the Lightning Snake for the Madarrpa. The lightning Snake facing upstream, upon tasting the freshwater coming down stands on his tail and by way of spiting lightning into the sky communicates with the Ṉuŋurrdulpuyŋu and his contemporaries from other associated clans.

The same can be said for the other who faces towards the south towards another Madarrpa area called Guminiyawiny, Numbulwar way, producing storm fronts and boomerang shaped jet streams with its message. These events are sung with the aid of Napunda the boomerang shaped click sticks that are represented by the same shapes of the jet-steams that feather the storms front. Songs associated with Baraltja are normally intoned at the completion of men's ceremony for the Madarrpa and associate clans.

So as a harpoon travels or does lightning the estates are connected spiritually in a multidirectional way - both to and from, a cyclic phenomenon which is chronicled in the sacred songs that narrate these Ancestral actions over land, through the sea and ether.

Her artworks are in the following prestigious collections :

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney NSW
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide SA
Berndt Museum, University of Western Australia, Perth WA
Charles Darwin University Art Collection
Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Debra and Dennis Scholl Collection
Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia. USA
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin NT
Museum Kunstwerk, Germany
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney NSW
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra ACT
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne VIC
National Maritime Museum, Saltwater Collection. Darling Harbour, Sydney NSW
Sammlung Klein, Eberdingen-Nussdorf, Germany
Tandanya National Aboriginal Institute, Adelaide SA
TATE Modern, London UK
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Demander le prix de l'œuvre / Enquiry

© Photo & text : Aboriginal Signature Estrangin gallery with the courtesy of the artists, & Buku Art.