"Yilpara, Bäniyala [Maḏarrpa homelands] and Birany’birany are all connected together, and you can see it in the diamonds that we paint. But there are lots of different diamonds, from Gäṉgaṉ to Yilpara and Birany’birany and so on. The diamonds are the tongues of the fire."
– YÄLPI YUNUPIŊU
More Info
All Yirritja clans have a design that includes some variant of diamond patterns. For the Maḏarrpa clan, these designs usually consist of open-ended strings of diamonds which represent the saltwater estate of Yathikpa.
Wurrandan Marawili is the younger brother of Napuwarri Marawili and paints the same ancestral narrative as his brother. Their paintings tell the story of two ancestral hunters Garramatji and Burrak. Spotting a djunuŋguyaŋu (dugong), the pair took their canoe out into the waters off Yathikpa in pursuit. The hunters speared the dugong, but were lured two close to a dangerous rock, where the ancestral crocodile Bäru had left his sacred fire. The fire boiled the water, capsizing the canoe. Their harpoon turned into Dhakandjali, the hollow log coffin that can also be seen in the paintings of the Maŋgalili artist Nänyin Maymuru.
Simply titled Diamond, Wurrandan takes this archetypal form as his starting point, setting diamond within diamond to create an analogy for the infinite depth of meanings contained within this sacred form. Hidden beneath the cascading waters are two dugong, swimming from then sacred rock. According to Djambawa Marawili, "The fire is still at the sea, where the rock is, at Yathikpa."
– Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection
Additional Information
Decade
2018
Medium
Natural pigments and synthetic polymer paint on eucalyptus bark
Dimensions (IN)
40 15/16 x 17 23/32
Dimensions (CM)
104 x 45
Credit
Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia.
The 2017-19 Kluge-Ruhe Maḏayin Commission.
Purchased with funds provided by William Alexander and Terrence Sykes, 2020. 2020.0002.001.
Narrative
Maḏarrpa
Maḏarrpa is a Yirritja moiety clan. Major spiritual themes include Bäru, a Maḏarrpa ancestor who...
Location
2010s
The 2010s saw Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka go from strength to strength. At the National Aboriginal and...
About The Artist(s)
Clan
Maḏarrpa
Artist Dates
Born 1983
Collections Represented
Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia