Lot 17

Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art Centre, Northern Territory (accompanied by a certificate of authenticity)
Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
Private collection, Melbourne

Dhuwarrwarr Marika; Milngurr - The Sacred Spring, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, 4 - 28 June 2008, cat. no.1 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)

"The time referred to as time before the first morning has the Djan'kawu (a man and his two sisters) leaving in a canoe to follow the morning star from their residence of Buralku, an island of ancestral dead. With them they carried dilly bags, mats and digging sticks that were to later manifest into sacred objects through ritual of song and dance that started on the sea of travel and into the sand dunes rimming the landing shores of Yalanbara.
From Yalanbara the Djan'kawu set out on their epic journey of eastern Arnhem Land, travelling on what they sanctified as Dhuwa land, singing the country and splitting it up into clan estates, designating sacred law (madayin) song, dance, totem, language to each as they went. Thus the one side of the duality that governs the Yolnu of Arnhem Land - the two moiety system of the Dhuwa and the Yirritja, emanated from Yalanbara.

Today the sandy beach at Yalanbara freshwater is found. By digging at the right location the freshwater seeps through the sand pooling in the hole dug. Rirratjinu song cycles celebrate the Djan'kawu creating this well by plunging the sacred Mawalan (digging stick) into this area as they strode up the beach with their possessions to the sand dunes further up. This well with water of sacred and special qualities is called Milnurr. These sisters gave birth to all Dhuwa clans starting here.

Affected by salt on their sea journey and the incursion of freshwater at Yalanbara, the mixing of the two was the catalyst for procreation. Today the tides of the sea and flow of freshwater are sung to explain and ensure the cycles of conception, birth and death of the Rirratjinu from their clan lands (Yalanbara) to relate specifically to the powers of the Djan'kawu and the land they affected for the Dhuwa.

A further stamp of clan ownership to Yalanbara is the use of the Rirratjinu clan crosshatched design."
As stated on the Buku-Larrngay Mulka certificate of authenticity