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

Gunybi Ganambarr has built a reputation for his innovative techniques, incising and shaping barks and adding materials to traditional art forms. He attributes his confidence in using new materials to his twelve year stint as a part of a building team in remote homelands. Ganambarr primarily lives in his mother’s community at Gangan, which lies north-west of Blue Mud Bay in eastern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. Ganambarr has absorbed the minutiae and spirituality of place; his paintings can be read as meditations on the specific tracts of land for which he is entitled to speak; in this case, a sacred expanse of water behind the Gangan outstation where this work was produced, referred to as Gulutji. Ganambarr’s designs recount the ancestral formation of the land, the beings that reside within its borders and
the seasonal events that nourish its ecosystem. His work exemplifies the confidence and cultural assertion of a new, experimental Yolngu art, while remaining firmly influenced by elders and senior artists. 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, gunybi ganambarr, natural environment, cultural heritage, cultural identity, cultural knowledge, landscape

Malaluba Gumana dedicates most of her artworks to portraying her mother Marratj Gurruwiwi’s Gälpu clan designs of dhatam (waterlilly), djari (rainbow), djaykun (filesnake) and wititj (olive python or rainbow serpent). Gumana demonstrates a very fine ‘marwat’, a cross hatching technique that utilises a fine brush of human hair, applied to bark and memorial poles. The title 'Garrimala' refers to a billabong close to Malaluba’s homeland of Gängan. Dominating this work are realistic representations of dhatam, the waterlily plant. The Gälpu clan miny’tji – the sacred clan design behind the lillies – represents djari (rainbows) and the power of the lightning within them. It also refers to the force of the storm created by the python Wititj, living amongst the waterlilies causing ripples and rainbows on the surface of the water. The dynamic diagonal lines symbolise trees that have been knocked down as Wititj moves from place to place. 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, malaluba gumana, waterlily, rainbow, filesnake, olive python, rainbow serpent, natural environment, cultural heritage