The iconography of Narritjin’s Yiŋapuŋapu | Sand Sculpture for Yirritja Mortuary Ceremonies is dense and complex and brings into play a number of different narratives.

The structure of the painting is created by the figures of the anvil-shaped Marawili sacred object in the upper and lower panels, joined together by the yiŋapuŋapu sand sculpture set in the middle of the central panel.

The top panel focuses on the Guwak, shown in flight with string in its beak, perched on the top of the Marawili tree, and finally in human form sitting in the bark canoe.

In the central panel, the section at right alludes to the disaster that occurred at sea—the empty canoe, the floating spear, the pronged fish spear and spear thrower.

In the center, four human figures dancing around the yiŋapuŋapu are taking part in the mortuary ritual.

The panel to the left is almost a painting within a painting, an insert that references events that occurred near the yiŋapuŋapu at Bäniyala in Maḏarrpa Country. The core story is of Djeṯ (Sea Eagle ancestor). A young boy caught a small fish and refused to share it with his father. His father went out fishing and, on his return, refused to share the catch with his son. The boy became wild with anger, jumping up and down and crying, and as he did so he began to change his bodily form into that of an immature eagle. His father joined him in the sky.

The bottom panel is almost a return to everyday life. At left, the Nyapililŋu are out gathering food, digging sticks in hand, and on the right, they sit in the shade of a ganyawu tree carving a digging stick and weaving a basket. Their “brother” the Guwak can be seen rising out of the Marawili into the panel above.

– Howard Morphy