Wandawuy
2012
- Medium
- earth pigments on Stringybark (Eucalyptus sp.)
- Measurements
- 153.5 × 82.2 cm
- Place/s of Execution
- Yirrkala, Northern Territory
- Accession Number
- 2013.97
- Department
- First Nations Australia
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with funds donated by Julie Kantor, 2013
© Nonggirrnga Marawili, courtesy of Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of The Vizard Foundation - Gallery location
- Gallery 2
Ground Level, NGV Australia - About this work
-
The artist represents Wandawuy, the Djapu homeland centre. The grid refers to the landscape of Wandawuy, a network of billabongs surrounded by ridges and high banks, its structure also reminiscent of woven fish traps. Wandawuy is the spiritual residence for ancestral beings, Mana the Shark and Bol’ngu the Thunderman. Wandawuy literally means ‘place of the Shark’s head’; in the song cycles of Mana’s journey, his head came to rest here after he was butchered and scattered through the land. Rains inspired by the actions of Bol’ngu feed the rivers and fill the billabongs.