Gunybi Ganambarr

(born 1973)

Lorr - Home of the Lightning Snake, 2010 (irregular)

Footnotes

PROVENANCE
Buku-Larrngay Mulka, Yirrkala
Annandale Galleries, Sydney (label attached verso, cat. BLA 548)
The Sarick Collection, Canada

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

Baraltja is the residence of Burrut'tji (also known as Mundukul) the lightning serpent. It is an area of flood plains that drain into northern Blue Mud Bay. It is on country belonging to the Madarrpa but sung by Dhalwangu as well and denotes an area of special qualities pertaining to fertility and the mixing of waters. From Madarrpa (and Dhalwaŋu clan) land freshwater spreads onto the Baraltja flood plains with the onset of the Wet. A tidal creek into the Bay flows with the freshwater flushing the brackish mix into the sea.

This flushing of freshwater excites Burrut'tji to stand on its tail spitting lightning in the directions from where the weather comes from. Waŋupini or thunderheads are seen flicking lightning on the horizon in the deep water named Muŋurru connecting with Madarrpa ancestors of the Dhiliyalyal tribe who lived at Boway Nipaŋwuy further down the coast. This Ancestral kinship tie is linked over sea country as well as the land and a cycle of events that also connect by lightning wind and rain has it so. The cloud is sung as femininity and fecundity, pregnant with life-giving freshwater.

This work and the land itself hide a sacred manifestation of the serpent. The water from the sea flows through the shore line and over a sand bar (Burrut'tji) into the floodplain before it is taken by the tide right out to the sea horizon where the looming mother figure of Waŋupini (Wet Season Thunderhead) sings. The saltwater is fire imbued water that will return to the shores of Baraltja either as fully salt bythe tide or freshwater carried by Waŋupini rains.

The Ancestral Lightning Snake Mundukul is often depicted writhing around the perimeter of its watery hole Lorr. With the onset of the wet season freshwater is 'tasted' by Mundukul who stands on its tail to herald the event of new season by spitting lightning into the sky.

During the dry season the waters of Baraltja have become a brackish mix of the drying Baraltja creek that becomes contaminated by the tidal surge from the Bay. At a waterhole on the creek, where Mundukul resides, the Serpent lay down, the myth stating that the ribs of Mundukul created a fish trap either end of the water hole. This is indicative as to how hunters would fish these holes, by making a bush net of stakes and branches to then drive the fish into them.

The meeting of the waters is a generic theme for the Yolŋu of northeast Arnhem Land and is symbolic of fertility. The movement of tide, the running of rivers, the differing states of water are all an integral part of Yolŋu philosophy and are danced by groups participating in ritual. Intimate knowledge of the land encompasses also the behaviour of river, floodplains and sea for the Yolŋu.

As Mundukul also known as Burrut'tji spits lightning he communicates with related serpents sitting in similar systems owned by other Yirritja clans to the North and South ends of Blue Mud Bay. The medium of this message is the deep horizon ocean. Although in the Dry Season there is no physical connection through water between the Dhalwangu clan Gangan River and their maternal granddaughter Madarrpa clan's Baraltja Creek - in the Wet the inundation allows the possibility of water flowing from Gangan to emerge at Baraltja. This area is sung and painted by both clans because of the spiritual connection echoed by the physical reality. The bulge in the pattern refers to Motu, the build up of red black and yellow mangrove leaves in this mangrove creek.

From Baraltja the waters migrate to Muŋurru the mighty undifferentiated Yirritja saltwater ocean that plays at the horizon which receives and unifies all the Yirritja coastal saltwaters in one. This area is not depicted in this work.

It is from here that the water (soul) transmogrifies to vapour to enter the 'pregnant' Waŋupini (Wet Season storm clouds) which carry the life giving freshwater back to rain on the escarpment of the Mitchell Ranges - the watershed and the start of the cycle.

Another component of the water is not represented here but informs the identity of Baraltja. That is Yathikpa which provides the firey saltwater. Yathikpa is the coastal sea region at the mouth of the Gunmurrutŋpi River. In ancestral times, Bäru was living at Ditjpalwuy, on a creek in the Yathikpa area. Bäru's wife Dhamilingu (blue tongue lizard) was living there with Bäru. Dhamilingu made a fire and a ngulurr (shelter) and then went away to collect mendung (freshwater snails). Whilst she was away, Bäru looked at the fire and the shelter and knew that they belonged to him and he talked to himself saying 'this is my sacred area'. Then Bäru went to sleep in the shelter waiting for Dhamilingu to return.

When Dhamilingu got back and she was cooking the snails, she and Bäru had a fight. She spat at him and threw the hot snail shells at him, and he threw her into the fire. Dhamilingu turned into a blue tongue lizard, and Bäru, with the bark from the shelter burning him, turned into a crocodile.

Bäru threw some fire to a sacred rock offshore called Dhakalmayi. The fire is still there at the rock in the sea. He also spread the fire to different areas belonging to different clans. One of these was Garaŋali the Crocodile's nest site. He went to Caledon Bay and gave fire to the Yunuping Gumatj people at Ngalarrwuy, and he went to Mata Mata in Burarrwanga Gumatj country and gave the fire. But most of all, fire and crocodile, the designs and ceremony belong to the Madarrpa people. Thats how Bäru made it when he was making that country and ceremony. The footprints of Djirikitj the Quail which carries fire as a burning twig and connects Madarrpa with Gumatj appear here. They make their home in the long dry grass which carries fire so well.

Eventually, the Ancestral Fire, symbolic of Madarrpa lore, burnt Bäru enough to permanently scar his back. He now needs to stay in the seawater to soothe his scarred back and remains terrified of fire.

The influence of the fire remains in this water. Yolngu speak of Gundirrnganing (Stone fish) and Gaywarr (Box Jellyfish) as 'burning' their victims rather than stinging. The fire in the water was to claim more victims. Two hunters set out in this water from the shores of Yathikpa. Their destination was Woodah Island, to see a brother in law. They were to collect from him hunting paraphernalia for fishing, principally fishing hooks of carved hard wood attached to bush string lines, large shells for bailing unwanted water coming into the canoe and turtle shell for impending barter.

Successful in this they paddled off from Woodah Island in search of good fishing grounds. Once off shore on seeing Dugong they pursued it to harpoon. In this area of saltwater was the sacred site of fire - the submerged rock flung by Bäru surrounded by turbulent and dangerous water. It was here at Dhakalmayi that the Dugong took shelter to escape the hunters. The action of the flung harpoon towards the Dugong, hence the rock, enraged the powers that be, causing these dangerous waters to boil from sacred fires from underneath. This has been interpreted in modern times as a reference to an actual prehistorical Tsunami whose occurrence signalled the initiation of mortuary ceremony to this region. The canoe capsized, both drowning and burning the Ancestral Hunters with their canoe and hunting paraphernalia. The harpoon, rope, paddles and canoe are sung at ceremony and manifestations of these objects are used as restricted secret sacred objects in ceremony today.

Djunuŋguyaŋu the dugong are associated with this site, attracted by sandy sea beds that grow the sea grass called Gamata that they graze. The crosshatched design in this painting is the sacred clan design for the Madarrpa representing saltwater and fire here and is a manifestation of the sacred waters and Gamata waving like flames below the surface.

One of the men drowned. The other was able to swim, both to, and to become, the rock Garramadji or another name Galkama.

On climbing on top of the rock he saw the terns - gitgit - operating the surface of the water for fish. In seeing on the horizon the massive anvil shaped clouds Waŋupini building, he felt stronger and lucky to be alive.

Today when Yolŋu hunt in these waters they venture out to Garramadji and sit on the rock to smoke and tell stories of the past, sing and pay respect to things past. In return for their homage the fisherman hope for slight seas and a good catch.

In various versions of the narrative drawn from these songs it is suggested that the Crocodile attempted to eat the man and that a whale did instead. This is also a reference to the larrakitj (or memorial pole) which contains the bones of a deceased. The hunting gear floats between the coastal estates of Maŋgalili, Madarrpa and Dhalwaŋu connecting them in ceremony. The harpoon is another metaphorical memorial pole. The death of these men founded mortuary ceremony for these three clans. It is the origin of grief.

It follows that the emanations from the serpents are lightning spat into the sky in the direction of other Madarrpa lands and also in communication through this electric language with other similar serpents, members of different Yirritja clans. So as a harpoon travels or does lightning the estates are connected spiritually in a multi directional way - both to and from, a cyclic phenomenon which are chronicled in the sacred songs that narrate these Ancestral actions over land, through the sea and ether. It is worth noting that Yolŋu 'science' portrays this energy burst as coming up from the land which is now recognised by Western science as the precursor to downward lightning 'strikes'.