Gurtha (Road closed for Ceremony)
2021
Medium
etched road sign
Measurements
62.8 × 180.0 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with funds donated by Christopher Thomas AM and Cheryl Thomas, 2022
© Wanapati Yunupiŋu
Gallery location
Gallery 3
Ground Level, NGV Australia
About this work
Gurtha (Road closed for ceremony) shows Wanapati Yunupiŋu’s clan design etched into the surface of a road sign often found in Yirrkala and other remote Indigenous communities. These signs are used to ensure that neither the spirit of the deceased nor the ceremony guiding it to rest are disrupted. On the sign’s surface, Yunupiŋu has etched his Gumatj clan miny’tji (sacred design) that embodies gurtha (fire) and references the ancestral event when the leaders of Yirritja moiety clans used fire for the first time during a ceremony at Ngalarrwuy on Gumatj Country.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Yirrkala, Northern Territory
Accession Number
2022.930
Department
First Nations Australia