Malay women weaving

A member of the famed dynasty of Yolŋu artists, Muŋgurrawuy Yunupiŋu made this ochre painting on card during the 1948 American–Australian Expedition to Arnhem Land, which included a visit to his Yirrkala home. In this work, titled Malay women weaving, we can trace the early transactions between Aboriginal people and the Makassans – those from the Makassar region of Sulawesi − who had made pilgrimages to the northern coast of Australia for hundreds of years before European colonisation. This trade route fulfilled the appetite in Southern China for the seafood delicacy, trepang or bêche-de-mer – edible sea cucumbers. Among the traded items were other austral commodities such as pearl shell, beeswax and ironwood.

The painting depicts four women with their weavings, with the artist using rarrk (cross-hatching) and miny’tji (design) to create a series of sections within the work. Yunupiŋu’s father Damalatja had visited Makassar in the late nineteenth century and upon his return recounted seeing Malay women weaving cloth between two sticks of bamboo. The process of producing the cloth involved the bamboo being shaken by the women, causing a hammering sound. During his visit Damalatja also witnessed an individual setting the house belonging to one the weavers on fire, and surmised that this act of arson had been motivated by the vandal’s dislike of the sound made by the women weaving.1 The arsonist is rendered in the centre of the painting lighting a fire in the rafters of the building, while a smaller figure looks on.

Lisa Slade, Assistant Director, Artistic Programs