Nawurapu Wunungmurra is the eldest son of the late Yaggarriny Wunungmurra, the first Aboriginal artist to have his copyright recognised in an Australian court. From an early age he was trained by his father and assisted him with this painting. Later, as his own spiritual authority increased, he painted in his own right. This pole depicts the sea at Garraparra, a coastal headland and bay area within Mungurru, or Blue Mud Bay. Garraparra has been rendered by the wavy design for Yirritja (deep saltwater) that has many states and connects with the sacred waters coming from the land estates by currents and tidal flow. Garraparra marks the spot of a sacred burial area for the Dhalwangu clan to which Wunungmurra belongs. Sacred songs and dance narrate the heroic adventures of two ancestral hunters who left the shores of Garraparra hunting for turtle. On their journey they passed sacred places and ancestral totems before they came to grief when their canoe capsized. The hunters’ bodies washed back to the shores of Garraparra with the currents and the tides, as the Wangupini, cloud rising from the north, followed with its rain and wind. In the songs, the terns (Gitkit) reel in the breeze around these statuesque clouds on the horizon, and this stylised rendition of clouds seen at the top of this work is the latest motif in Wunungmurra’s ouvre.Ceremonial hollow log poles Arnhem Land, Northern Territory The people of Central and Eastern Arnhem Land refer to themselves collectively as Yolngu, meaning human beings. The Yolngu traditionally use logs naturally hollowed out by termites in a funerary and ceremonial functions, principally as an ossuary. In an Australian contemporary art context however hollow log sculptures are purely memorial in function and made explicitly for public display. In Arnhem Land hollow logs are known as larrakitj; hollow logs known by other names are used in burial practices by a number of Aboriginal peoples in the north of Australia. The logs can also represent the deceased person, as the designs applied are the same as those painted on the body during the burial rites. All Yolngu clans belong to a moiety, one of two complementary halves of society: Dhuwa and Yirritja. All such affiliations play a part in Aboriginal artists' inherited right to paint an established set of designs belonging to their social group; this inheritance is, in fact, the artist's copyright over imagery.stonnington contemporary art collection, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, painting, nawurapu wunungmurra, garraparra, coastal, yirritja, saltwater, sacred burial, cultural heritage, cultural identity