- Title: Yalata – SOLD OUT
- Artist: Liyawaday Wirrpanda
- Region: Arnhem Land
- Art Centre: Buku Larrnggay Mulka
- Medium: Silkscreen
- Collection: Djalkiri - single prints
- Dimensions: 58 x 21.5
- Edition Size: 40
- Price ($AUD): $ 400.00
Artwork Story
Liyawaday is the daughter of artists Dhukal Wirrpanda and Galuma Maymuru and third wife of Djambawa Marawili. She has painted her Dhudi-Djapu clan’s design of country that was transformed by the principal creator beings for the Dhuwa moiety – the Djan’kawu. They passed through the plains country of Yalata towards where the Dhudi-Djapu live today at Dhuruputjpi. These the Djan’kawu, two Sisters with names in this country of Ganaypa and Banyali, sang the brolga (Dhaŋgultji) as they went with their walking sticks (Wapitja). With these they dug waterholes as they went, naming, and thus sanctifying them with special qualities.
Today they retain these same qualities for the Yolŋu, the water and knowledge that surfaces from these wells by their actions are sung in ceremony for this country. Wan’kawu the sacred goanna for Djapu clans and associated Dhuwa emerged from one of these waterholes by the upper reaches of the plain, a place called Dhakarra or Walirrwan. Wan’kawu witnessed the first sunrise over this area to see Daŋgultji walking over the plain, waterhole to waterhole, leaving their footprints in the drying mud.
This image depicts these plains inundated with flood-waters of the Wet. Grasses are suspended by this sacred water, its gentle flow is towards the sea of Blue Mud Bay. Both the Sisters and the brolga are manifest in the footprints.
Copyright Buku Larrnggay Mulka 2010