Dhatam
2023
- Medium
- earth pigments on Stringybark (Eucalyptus sp.)
- Measurements
- (179.0 × 96.0 cm)
- Place/s of Execution
- Yirrkala, Northern Territory
- Accession Number
- 2023.754
- Department
- First Nations Australia
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with funds donated by Barbara Hay and the Hay Family, Beatrice Moignard, Andrew Michelmore AO and Janet Michelmore AO and anonymous, 2023
© the artist - Gallery location
- Gallery 2
Ground Level, NGV Australia - About this work
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Guruwuy Murrinyina assisted her mother with her paintings of Galpu clan imagery until her mother’s death in February 2020. Out of respect and observing spiritual protocols, Murrinyina did not paint for two years. Upon returning to the medium, Murrinyina modified the designs adopted by her mother, signalling a new direction in her aesthetic. The iconography nonetheless references the Wititj (olive python), a motif depicted in numerous ways across Bark Salon. The Wititj travelled through Gälpu clan lands and beyond during wangarr (ancestral) times.
Djaykung, the Javanese file snake, is a companion and possibly an incarnation of Wititj living among the dhatam (waterlilies) and causing ripples and djari (rainbows) on the surface of the water. Murrinyina excitingly joins a new cohort of painters working on bark who were taught by a generation of women who were the first to paint on the medium, catalysing new and experimental modes of making.