Lot 45
Wanyubi Marika(born 1967)Mumut'thun, 2007
2 December 2025, 18:00 AEDT
SydneyAU$6,000 - AU$9,000
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Alex Clark
Head of Sale, Senior Specialist
Merryn Schriever
Managing Director, Australia
Wanyubi Marika (born 1967)
Mumut'thun, 2007
wood with natural earth pigments, larrakitj
height: 168.0cm (66 9/16in).
wood with natural earth pigments, larrakitj
height: 168.0cm (66 9/16in).
Footnotes
PROVENANCE
Buku-Larrngay Mulka, Yirrkala (cat. 3291J)
Annandale Galleries, Sydney
The Sarick Collection, Canada
EXHIBITED
Wanyubi Marika & Young Guns II, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, 16 April - 10 May 2008
LITERATURE
Wanyubi Marika & Young Guns II, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, 2008, pp. 10-11 (illus.)
The work is accompanied by documentation from Buku-Larrngay Mulka which reads:
'The protected bay of saltwater named on maps below Cape Arnhem as Port Bradshaw is separated from the open sea (Gulf of Carpentaria) by open bush land on sand behind the highest dunes in the Territory, that face the 'sunrise side (East).
Yalanbara is the Rirratjinu clan country on the sunrise side and where the Dhuwa Moiety creator beings; the Djan'kawu first arrived from their point of departure of the mythical island of the dead, Buralku. The Djan'kawu, two sisters with their brother, ascended the dunes from the beach and on the other side performed first ritual proclaiming land there for the Rirratjinu. Not far from the shore of Port Bradshaw the Djan'kawu embarked on what was to become the epic creation mythology for the Dhuwa clans.
As they paddled they sang their journey. As they approached the mainland and as the sun was just about to rise they sang the species in the water touched by star and moonlight adjacent to Yalanbara in the North East known as Mumutthun. Freshwater from wells created by the Djan'kawu mixes with salt.
The miny'ji (sacred clan design) represents this sea country and having been subject to the Djan'kawu's powers is imbued with the same.
This is the artist's representation of the water immediately after the sister's paddles have been withdrawn from it. It is a conception which exists within the songs and employs all of the elements of the sacred design and refers to the many levels of meaning within the law but is the artists own personal act of reverence towards his birthright.'