Nänyin’s painting Guwak ga Marrŋu | Night Bird and Possum (1964) can be read from different perspectives. The image shows the journey of the ancestors from place to place, with each intersection depicting a location where they stopped. Guwak, at the top of the painting, is leading the way, and the possum-fur string trails behind him. The central column can also be interpreted as the ganyawu (Semecarpus australiensis, native cashew tree) at journey’s end, which has the sacred name Marawili. From this perspective, it is also the “playground” for the possums, who run up and down the tree and in and out of the hollowed trunk. The background miny’tji (pattern) inside the trunk shows the marks made by the possums, and outside the miny’tji shows patterns in the sand. At the very top of the trunk are three garanyirrnyirr (cicadas).

– Howard Morphy