Djapu, 2019, Yimula Mununggurr
(black banded lorrkon at the back)
Lorrkon, 231cm x 18cm
Provenance: Outstation Gallery, Darwin.
Yimula has worked as an artist for several years and is developing a precise hand on paintings of her own Djapu clan as well as her mother’s Maḏarrpa clan.
"Born at Gurka’wuy and moved to live at Bäniyala with my mother (Djultjul) and father (Munduku). When I was a little girl, when my father died we moved to Roper River and stayed for a long time. I finished school. Then I went to Numbulwar and married Dhäkiyarr son of the great warrior Woŋgu Mununggurr, We lived at Numbulwar for many years, then moved to Yirrkala. I worked sewing girri (clothes) shorts, shirts, for school uniform for the (djamarrkuḻi) children. Then we moved to Garrthalala and my husband and I worked together painting bark and carving wood. Then we moved to my Mäḻu’s wäŋa (fathers country ) Bäniyala and worked at making an air strip for our Homeland. Then we moved to my husbands wäŋa-(place) Waṉdawuy for good. I have 3 boys and 5 girls and lots of grandchildren." (1)
The Lorrkon or bone pole coffin ceremony was the final ceremony in a sequence of mortuary rituals celebrated by the people of Arnhem Land. This ceremony involves the placing of the deceased’s bones into a hollow log, which is decorated with painted clan designs and ceremonially placed into the ground where it remained until it slowly decay over many years. The log is made from a termite hollowed stringybark tree (Eucalyptus tetradonta) and is decorated with totemic emblems.