Organized by the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection

Barayuwa Munuŋgurr | Yarrinya

Barayuwa Munuŋgurr

Yarrinya, 2017

Yarrinya

Clan

Munyuku

Songline

Mirinyuŋu | The Whale

"This is the painting belonging to Yarrinya. Yarrinya’s songs and ceremony are major ones. And it is powerful, the story relating to this place, this land. This painting is different from any other."

– BARAYUWA MUNUŊGURR

More Info

Many of Barayuwa’s most significant artworks reference his mother’s clan’s ancestral inheritance, particularly in relation to the story of the stranded whale called Mirinyuŋu on the shore at Yarrinya during the Waŋarr (ancestral time).

Following Yolŋu systems of kinship, which extend to all living things, the whale belonged to the Munyuku clan. Two spirit men from the Munyuku clan hunted and killed the whale considered their brother, and its body washed up onto the beach at Yarrinya, contaminating it with blood and fat.The hunters used stone knives to sever the whale’s tail and cut its body into long strips.

Disgusted by their own actions, they threw their knives into the sea, forming a dangerous hidden reef. The bones of the whale are also said to have become a part of the rocks in the ocean.

The whale’s tail is referenced in raŋga (sacred objects used in ceremony). Barayuwa’s mother and her brother made him responsible for looking after this powerful story and passing it down to future generations of Munyuku.

This painting was a finalist in the 2017 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.


– Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre

Additional Information

Decade

2017

Medium

Natural pigments on eucalyptus bark

Dimensions (IN)

89 3/8 x 25 3/16

Dimensions (CM)

247 x 80

Credit

Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia.
The 2017-19 Kluge-Ruhe Maḏayin Commission.
Purchased with funds provided by James G. and Marcy Harris, 2018, 2018.0006.001

Narrative

Munyuku

The Munyuku clan belongs to the Yirritja moiety. Major spiritual themes relate to marine life...

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Songline

Mirinyuŋu | The Whale

During the Waŋarr, two spirit men from the Munyuku clan hunted and killed a whale...

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Location

Yarrinya

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Location

2010s

The 2010s saw Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka go from strength to strength. At the National Aboriginal and...

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About The Artist(s)

Clan

Gupa-Djapu’

Artist Dates

Born 1980

Barayuwa Munuŋgurr

Barayuwa Munuŋgurr is the grandson of Woŋgu Munuŋgurr and Djimbaryun Ŋurruwutthun, giving him authority to paint both Djapu’ and Munyuku designs. In recent years, he has gained acclaim for his dense paintings of the Munyuku saltwater estate of Yarrinya. His 2015 wall drawing Manbuyŋa was acquired by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. In 2019 he traveled to the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth and the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection to work on Maḏayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala.

Collections Represented

Art Gallery of New South Wales

Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth

Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia

National Gallery of Australia