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COAST / LINES: Garawan Wanambi & Manini Gumana

Past exhibition
15 April - 17 May 2015
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Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Garawan Wanambi, Marrangu

Garawan Wanambi Australian, Yolngu, b. 1965

Marrangu
natural earth pigment on wood
150 cm
828412
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This painting depicts country close to Raymangirr, on the coast of Arnhem Bay. It is a sacred and restricted area where freshwater is known to spring to the surface of...
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This painting depicts country close to Raymangirr, on the coast of Arnhem Bay. It is a sacred and restricted area where freshwater is known to spring to the surface of the beach at the low tide region.

Garawan a Marrakulu clansman says that "Wayunrja brought me up so I'm also adopted to the Marranu clan".

The Marrakulu and Marranu are closely related clans through madayin (sacred clan mythologies and law). Both tell of the felling of monumental trees by the honey ancestor Wuyal, the scouring out of a river course by the fallen log on its way to sea, deluge of honey, floods and other apocalyptic events.

For the Marranju at a site close to coastal Raymangirr is the mouth of this river and places of non secular danger where freshwater fonts spring up into this tidal region. It has been said that if you go too close to this area you'll become sick such is the malevolent power of this sute. Mapan-Boils.

A site of the mosquito ancestors - they will waya mari (fight with spears into) the boil releasing the bloody muck. Then there is peace and calm after the storm, sun rays play on the surface of the water, another manifestation depicted within this work.

The mosquito is a symbol of aggression and the ancestral mosquitoes fight with spears as on an avenging expedition. The mosquito ancestors are associated with places of spiritual danger cause boils. Fighting is a release of tension just as the bursting of a boil.

The designs represents this place in the river mouth near Raymangrr, where freshwater springs bubble up beneath the saltwater. The designs represent the different character of the waters moving from anger to turbulence to the calm of resolution, bathed in the warmth of the sun's rays. Manifest and central to the painting is the fallen trunk, this sacred larrakitj is a manifestation of the same.
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