Galuma Maymuru

(born 1951)

Yingapungapu/Nyapilingu, 2002

Footnotes

PROVENANCE
Buku-Larrngay Mulka, Yirrkala (documentation attached verso, cat. 2235A)
Annandale Galleries, Sydney (label attached verso, cat. BLA 160)
The Sarick Collection, Canada

EXHIBITED
BUWAYAK: Invisibility, bark paintings, sculptures & ceremonial poles from Yirrkala, Arnhem Land, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, 9 April - 17 May 2003

This work is accompanied by documentation from Buku-Larrngay Mulka which reads:

'Galuma is the daughter of the legendary Narritjin. She, along with her sisters, was one of the first women to be taught to paint sacred miny'tji or clan design. She was part of a school of Mangalili artists under her father and uncle which dominated Yoingu art production for the art market during the sixties and seventies.

Djarrakpi, the Mangalili clan homeland is at the tip of Cape Shield, a promontory overlooking the northern aspect into Blue Mud Bay. At Diarrakpi is a lake of brackish water behind the massive coastal sand dunes. The other side of the lake is scrubby woodland. The lake is looked at by the Mangalili as a place signifying fertility, the sandunes the domain of the spirit sisters Nyapalinu, the other side having the male characteristics of the Guwak people who were sent by Yirritja Creator Being Barama to find this place. Upon arriving at Djarrakpi in the form of Koel Cuckoo they alighted on the sacred Marawili tree- a gan'yawu or bush cashew tree. In ancestral times the Guwak founded Djarrakpi then brought the Mangalili to it. The possum acted as messenger.

The waving bands of crosshatching throughout are the sacred clan signature belonging to these people and can denote among many things the sand country of Djarrakpi and the tracks left behind on them by the various totemic species at Djarrakpi. Marryu the possum is also depicted.

Having seen the people settled in their new homeland the Guwak announced to the Mangalili their farewell, that they, the Guwak men were to travel out to sea, to a place in the sky and that they would become stars which would shine out of the night sky.

So a canoe and paddles were made and their journey began by paddling down the Milguya River which flows into the Blue Mud Bay near Diarrakpi. In the bay, at a place of significance. strong winds developed and a wake from the ancestral turtle capsized the canoe - the men drowned. The mortal remains of these heroes were interred in the Yinapungapu.

The Yigapugapu is a low relief sand sculpture, elliptical in shape, and used in the context of mortuary ritual for the Yirritja clans of Mangalili, Madarrpa and Dhalwanu. Its primary traditional function is to keep the contamination of death within the confines of the sculpture

The death of the founders of Diarrakpi for the Mangalili clan of Yolnu, initialed the first rites of mortuary for these people. The body of the deceased is ceremonially placed at the central station of the sand sculpture - Yinapunapu. This painting has reference to this ceremony, the Guwak Ancestors and the role played by the utilisation of the Yinapunapu at Djarrakpi By placing the body within the confines of the sand sculpture keeps the contamination of death at bay. Furthering this concept has a notion of cleansing whereas over time through the agents of nature the soft tissues of the body returns to the mother (earth), the bones are laid bare and clean for the final rites of passage back to the Man galili reservoir of souls. The feminine aspect of this painting is emphasised by the shape of the sand sculpture From this shape a person emerges and through this shape they return to the earth The gunyan (sand crabs) play a role in this stage.

Yambirku is the parrot fish, totemic to the Mangalili clan. It was speared by the Mangalili ancestral hunter Muwandi at Diarrakpi from a special rock that bears the same name. The fish was taken back to Muwandi's camp called Dhunwanguthi. The left over carcass was placed in a sand pit to keep the camp clean. The pit was to evolve into the Yipapunapu, the traditional mortuary sand sculpture where the body of a deceased Mangalili was placed to keep the contamination of death at bay. Paintings of the Yinapunapu are often depicted with the skeletal remains of Yambirrku in its middle. In contemporary mortuary ceremony it is still customary for Yambirrku to be consumed on the last day and the bones deposited in the centre of the Yinapunapu as shown here.

The wavy lines are the Mangalili sacred design or miny'tji referring to possum tracks in the Marawili tree or crab tracks on sand to name but two of many levels of meaning.

There is an element of timeless realism in the imagery of people going about mortuary ceremony. This could be happening today, in the distant past or far in the future.

The imagery has many levels and echoes and it is worth reading Howard Morphy's Ancestral Connections for more depth of meaning.

The cross designs and the figures at the top of the work are a reference to the feminine possum string girdle worn by Nyapililgu. (This motif also adorns the maternal Wanupini or Wet Season thunderheads 'pregnant' with rain and the sandhills around the lake). The Guwak can be associated with death at times. The possum spun its own fur into sacred string. The sacred Marawili tree anchored this string which acted as a line to the reservoir of Mangalili souls; the Milky Way.

Nyapilingu is a spirit woman who lived in Wangarr times, the Dreaming. Nyapilingu set out from Ambakamba (Groote Eylandt) in a paper bark canoe and travelled across to the mainland and then north and west as far as the central Arnhem Land coast. Wherever she went she marked the country with her activities. She is remembered by the people at these sites, who sing and dance her story.

Nyapilingu gave important culture to the people whose country she passed through. She wrapped herself in a sheet of paperbark so that men could not see her body, so women followed her in this She used Wapitja (digging stick) to collect food and to peel the bark from the stringybark tree and she made containers from paperbark which she carried on her head. These are identified with her today. Nyapiling also taught women how to look for the water lily 'yoku' and prepare it for eating, and how to make string and weave pandanus for bathi (dilly bags). The possum fur string which she wore in a cross shaped arrangement across her chest is a signature of hers.

Nyapilingu's blood is very important. Mourning at this first Mangalili funeral ceremony, she tore her scalp as women do today, and the blood flowed down into the clan waterhole at Diarrakpi. This is the blood of the Mangalili people - Manggalili spirit children come from this waterhole.

The artist's sister, Naminapu, in talking about Nyapilingu used the following words
"Nyapilingu was our woman ancestor. She was really important to Mangalili clan because she travelled all over the place claiming land for Mangalili people, and also for Yirritja yolngu. She was really a special woman because she owned all those places and to us it is really important because every clan should have its own totems. Nyapilingu herself was an important miyalk (woman) because she was the only woman in the rest of the clan group who was really special to us as a woman ancestor. Nge (Yes), for us Yolngu, our land-when you go to Djarrakpi, you see all the wänga (land) that she went through... (Messages come from the wänga: it is like a spirit itself in the land... yolngu talking to land, and land talking to yolngu ga wayin (people and animals). That's how animals connect to human beings and human beings to land... People that have lived there a long time and then came back, that thing remains there, the spirit, the spirit of the people and land itself. Yes...you can talk to your own land and the spirit can hear you.

(She carried on her head) wutjumunggu (container) with munydjutj (wild plums). Or she used to collect mengdung, snails, big ones...ga yoku (lily bulbs) ga gapu gama (and carry vater)... her dilly bag, she can put it on her head or also this one (wutjumunggu) on top of her head...She was also like a teacher. She showed Mangalili people how to make coolamons, digging stick, wapitja, ga raki (string), binggal (small sharp wooden tool) that she used to jap her scalp with) when she mourned for her gurrutumi yol'ngu (relatives), or used it on ngatha (food) like laluk (pandanus fruit) when she opened it. '