Yathikpa
2013
Medium
earth pigments on Stringybark (Stringybark sp.)
Measurements
207.8 × 78.2 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, NGV Supporters of Indigenous Art, 2014
© Nonggirrnga Marawili, courtesy of Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala
Gallery location
Gallery 2
Ground Level, NGV Australia
About this work
Strings of diamonds mark the miny’tji (sacred design) of Yathikpa. Here Bäru, the ancestral crocodile, carrying the ancestral fire, crossed the beach and entered the salt waters, which are still imbued with his spirit essence and the sacred power of fire. Later from the same beach, ancestral hunters took their hunting harpoons and canoes out to the sea of Yathikpa in pursuit of dugong, but were lured too close to a dangerous rock by the dugong. Fire at this sacred site boiled the water, capsizing the canoe.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Yirrkala, Northern Territory
Accession Number
2014.42
Department
First Nations Australia
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of The Vizard Foundation