
"When the cooking fire is finished, the name for the ashes left behind is gikawarra. The gurtha (fire) is called liltji or lirrwi. When the burning is finished the black ash is left after the fire has burned down. "
– BARRUPU YUNUPIŊU
More Info
The totemic significance of fire to the Yunupiŋu family of the Gumatj clan is paramount. It is said that the Gumatj clan language, Dhuwalandja, is itself the tongue of flame. This language, or tongue, like the flame, cuts through all artifice. It incinerates dishonesty leaving only the bones of the truth.
In ancestral times, the leaders of Yirritja moiety clans used fire for the first time during a ceremony at Ŋalarrwuy in Gumatj country. This came about as fire brought to the Maḏarrpa clan country by Bäru the ancestral crocodile, spread north and swept through the ceremonial ground. From this ceremonial ground the fire spread further to other sites. Various ancestral animals were affected and reacted in different ways. These animals became sacred totems of the Gumatj people and the areas associated with these events became important sites.
The diamond patterning is the miny’tji (design), of this clan and this place. It summons the theme of this fire. The Gumatj clan design associated with these events, a diamond design, represents fire; the red flames, the white smoke and ash, the black charcoal and the yellow dust. Clans owning connected parts of this sequence of ancestral events share variations of this diamond design.
– Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre
Additional Information
Decade
2010
Medium
Natural pigments on eucalyptus bark
Dimensions (IN)
47 1/4 x 23 5/8
Dimensions (CM)
120 x 60
Credit
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College. Gift of Will Owen and Harvey Wagner, 2011.60.5.
Narrative
Gumatj
The Gumatj are a large clan, with homeland communities at Gunyuŋarra, Birany’birany, Dhanaya, Bawaka, Maṯamaṯa...
Songline
Bäru | The Saltwater Crocodile
During the Waŋgarr (ancestral times), there was a woman named Dhamiḻiŋu. She lived with her...
Location
2010s
The 2010s saw Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka go from strength to strength. At the National Aboriginal and...
About The Artist(s)

Clan
Gumatj
Artist Dates
1948-2012
Alternative Names
Rita
Barrupu Yunupiŋu
Barrupu Yunupiŋu trained and worked as a nurse at the Yirrkala clinic until its closure in 1975. She was one of the first women to make works at the Yirrkala Print Space when it opened in 1995, and she began painting on bark in 2007 following the success of her sister Nyapanyapa Yunupiŋu. Known as the “fire lady” for her vigorous depictions of the ancestral Gumatj flames, she had a short but distinguished painting career, with her works acquired by the National Gallery of Australia and most state collections in Australia.
Collections Represented
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia