Organized by the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection

Dholtji

So Ḻany’tjuŋ (Yirritja creator ancestor) sent a man and a woman into the Dholtji homelands. They walked and lived and loved together, and soon they were having a baby. When Marryalyan noticed this, he sent the spirit of his flesh of the second, or land-going, form of Mäṉḏa and of Rambila to this young mother, so that the baby became a special saltwater kind, which was the first Warramiri child. This happened in the beginning and continues to happen at the present time. I am a Warramiri. Everything that I have is not my own but comes from those three, and also the whale. I have these spirits in me. I have the oceanal man in me. I have their honor and they are my maḏayin, my revered ancestors.

— DAVID BURRUMARRA

Dholtji is a Warramiri saltwater homeland located on a long peninsula that extends out into the Arafura Sea.

 

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Clan(s)

Warramiri

Songline(s)

Barama and Lany’tjung