Deutscher and Hackett

Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art Centre, Yirrkala, Northern Territory
Private collection, Melbourne

This work is accompanied by a copy of a certificate of authenticity from Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art Centre which states:

‘In ancestral times, the leaders of Yirritja moiety clans used fire for the first time during a ceremony at Nalarrwuy in Gumatj country. This came about as fire brought to the Madarrpa clan country by Baru 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 fire spread inland from the ceremonial ground and burnt the nest of Wankurra (Bandicoot) forcing him to hide in a hollow log Larrakitj to save himself. Wankurra is thus danced and sung at mortuary ceremony as he is associated with the burial log used to contain the bones of the deceased.’