Gurka'wuy larrakitj

Mr W. Wanambi was the son of the renowned painter, Mithili Wanambi, who died before imparting his cultural knowledge to his son. This responsibility was entrusted to the Yolŋu Elders, including the senior artist, Yaŋgarriny Wunuŋmurra, who taught Wanambi the saltwater imagery of the Marrakulu clan. 

In these three larrakitj (burial poles), Wanambi has painted the saltwater country around Trial Bay, in northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, for which he was a senior custodian. Bamurrungu and Gurka’wuy describe a sacred lone rock and a river respectively. This freshwater river merges with the ocean and together these waters crash against Bamurrungu, creating molmulpa, a white sea foam. Wanambi’s chevron miny’tji (designs), painted over the pole’s surface, depict the waters that wash over the mangroves growing along this coastline, where they meet their maternal grandmother’s ocean at the mouth of Trial Bay. In Wawurritjpal, Wanambi has painted the sea mullet, or milk fish, who were once people living on the land where the Marrakulu people settled. As they walked towards the ocean, they became wawurritjpal and were guided to Bamurrungu by a feathered string connected to the shore. Wanambi’s line work weaves around the rounded and distinctive forms of the stringybark tree, conveying the energy of the schools of fish as they swim and converge in the water.

Traditionally, larrakitj were used as bone ossuaries during the final stages of the Yolŋu mortuary ritual. Wanambi’s larrakitj are artistic expressions that continue to communicate the cultural connections and relationships that exist between the artist, his clan and specific places on Country.

Gloria Strzelecki, Associate Curator of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art