Bees at Gäṉgaṉ
2024
Medium
synthetic polymer paint on paper
Measurements
179.8 × 114 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2025
© Dhambit Munuŋgurr, courtesy of Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
In this work, Dhambit Munuŋgurr depicts a sacred ancestral story shared with her when she was fourteen by Dr Gawirrin Gumana AO, the artist’s great uncle on her father’s side. The story is about the bees at Gäṉgaṉ who nest in a galanyin (an esoteric name for Ironwood). Gäṉgaṉ is a significant place to Yolŋu people, relating to law, culture and history. Reflecting knowledge passed down to her, Munungurr depicts the black cockatoo singing from the Dhuwa tree (sacred tree of knowledge), and the adjacent billabong of Garrimala, home to the Rainbow Serpent. This important honey site belongs to the Gälpu clan of Munuŋgurr’s märi (mother's mother) and explains the Dhalwaŋu clan’s associated spiritual rites of Country.