The Waters of Gulutji
Fusing clan designs with his own visual vocabulary, Yolŋu artist Gunybi Ganambarr captures the distinctive dynamics of the living landscape. The undulating crosshatched and diamond forms that flow across the surface of these aluminum panels create a vivid geometry that refers to the sacred waters of Gulutji, near Gängän, the land of his mother’s Dhalwaŋu people. It was here that the ancestral creation being Barama emerged with water streaming from his body and weeds hanging from his arms. The patterns of this water is reflected in the flowing diamond miny’tji (sacred clan designs) of the Dhalwaŋu clan that cover this work.
The manifestation of Barama is the long neck turtle and chief totem for the Dhalwaŋu. Barama came to Gäṉgän from the saltwater country of Blue Mud Bay to emerge from the waterhole named Gulutji with the intention of establishing his law amongst the people there of that time. It was in a period called Wangarr, the world creation drives of the first mornings, when the ancestral beings came to country to give lore and title for the land and its people. The Yolŋu world is based on a duality of two moieties of equal status that integrate through a complex system of kinship. Clan groups in this area known as Miwatj country belong to either the Yirritja or Dhuwa moieties. The Dhalwaŋu clan has its origins where the Yirritja creator Beings first gathered at Gäṉgän.
Barama brought with him to Gäṉgän the hard wood raŋga (sacred objects) that had instilled in them the sacred knowledge pertaining to his law. Also on his body he had the marks left by the waters from where he had come, the sacred miny’tji that was later to become the sacred clan designs for the Yirritja moiety. Today appropriately senior ritual participants wear sacred feathered strings from armbands, their chest painted with the Dhalwaŋu design of freshwater. These totemic ancestors of the Dhalwaŋu clan are all associated with this site at Gäṉgän from which all Yirritja creation began. They are seen as embodiments of the disciples or companions of Barama and himself.
Barama had with him the knowledge of a highly sophisticated system of kinship mapping out associations between clans, country, individuals, all things physical and metaphysical, laws that govern these associations and ritual that included sacred song and dance to ensure its maintenance and miny’tji to claim title to land. This deep seated knowledge is held today in propriety by the most senior within the clan and safeguarded by Djuŋgaya or caretakers of an appropriate kin of the other moiety. The philosophies of ancient law are ‘graded’ into differing levels of meaning that is progressively divulged to the Yolŋu as part of age grading. The deepest of knowledge is found in the inner most sanctums of Yolŋu society and kept secret. Gäṉgän remains the site of Ŋarra, the restricted ceremony focusing on clan identity.
It is this knowledge of law and ceremony that is the foundation of Ganambarr’s practice, and what has made him one of the most radical innovators in Australian art.
People ask me why I make work that is different. I usually say: ‘Ngarraku mulkurr – it’s from my mind’. These are ideas that come to me when I work at sharing my culture and law. It starts from our foundation. I went into Ŋarra (restricted secret ceremonies) and that’s when I started to make art. Our djalkiri (foundation) is my beginning. Once I saw the foundation of Yirritja and Dhuwa law, and saw what was true and what was false, I began to learn more and more and now I have become an artist. – Gunybi Ganambarr
Ganambarr has introduced new art forms to Yolŋu without offending community tolerance or disrupting customary law. These novel forms include double sided barks, heavily sculpted poles, incised barks, ironwood sculpture, inserting sculptures into poles. His breakthrough when he began to incorporate materials that he found discarded on mining and building sites - chicken wire, rubber, glass, roofing insulation and galvanized iron. Yolŋu protocol dictates that art must only be made from materials derived from the land, conventionally bark and wood. Ganambarr has cast new perspectives on this law by arguing that that materials found on the land also belong to the land. By repurposing the detritus of mining and industralisation into works of art, he also poignantly comments on the impact that these operations are currently having on Country. Ganambarr attributes his early career as a builder as one of the reasons for his success in working these different materials. His practice in metal has inspired a whole generation of young Yolŋu artists to make works from old road signs, scrap metal and satellite dishes among other materials.
The manifestation of Barama is the long neck turtle and chief totem for the Dhalwaŋu. Barama came to Gäṉgän from the saltwater country of Blue Mud Bay to emerge from the waterhole named Gulutji with the intention of establishing his law amongst the people there of that time. It was in a period called Wangarr, the world creation drives of the first mornings, when the ancestral beings came to country to give lore and title for the land and its people. The Yolŋu world is based on a duality of two moieties of equal status that integrate through a complex system of kinship. Clan groups in this area known as Miwatj country belong to either the Yirritja or Dhuwa moieties. The Dhalwaŋu clan has its origins where the Yirritja creator Beings first gathered at Gäṉgän.
Barama brought with him to Gäṉgän the hard wood raŋga (sacred objects) that had instilled in them the sacred knowledge pertaining to his law. Also on his body he had the marks left by the waters from where he had come, the sacred miny’tji that was later to become the sacred clan designs for the Yirritja moiety. Today appropriately senior ritual participants wear sacred feathered strings from armbands, their chest painted with the Dhalwaŋu design of freshwater. These totemic ancestors of the Dhalwaŋu clan are all associated with this site at Gäṉgän from which all Yirritja creation began. They are seen as embodiments of the disciples or companions of Barama and himself.
Barama had with him the knowledge of a highly sophisticated system of kinship mapping out associations between clans, country, individuals, all things physical and metaphysical, laws that govern these associations and ritual that included sacred song and dance to ensure its maintenance and miny’tji to claim title to land. This deep seated knowledge is held today in propriety by the most senior within the clan and safeguarded by Djuŋgaya or caretakers of an appropriate kin of the other moiety. The philosophies of ancient law are ‘graded’ into differing levels of meaning that is progressively divulged to the Yolŋu as part of age grading. The deepest of knowledge is found in the inner most sanctums of Yolŋu society and kept secret. Gäṉgän remains the site of Ŋarra, the restricted ceremony focusing on clan identity.
It is this knowledge of law and ceremony that is the foundation of Ganambarr’s practice, and what has made him one of the most radical innovators in Australian art.
People ask me why I make work that is different. I usually say: ‘Ngarraku mulkurr – it’s from my mind’. These are ideas that come to me when I work at sharing my culture and law. It starts from our foundation. I went into Ŋarra (restricted secret ceremonies) and that’s when I started to make art. Our djalkiri (foundation) is my beginning. Once I saw the foundation of Yirritja and Dhuwa law, and saw what was true and what was false, I began to learn more and more and now I have become an artist. – Gunybi Ganambarr
Ganambarr has introduced new art forms to Yolŋu without offending community tolerance or disrupting customary law. These novel forms include double sided barks, heavily sculpted poles, incised barks, ironwood sculpture, inserting sculptures into poles. His breakthrough when he began to incorporate materials that he found discarded on mining and building sites - chicken wire, rubber, glass, roofing insulation and galvanized iron. Yolŋu protocol dictates that art must only be made from materials derived from the land, conventionally bark and wood. Ganambarr has cast new perspectives on this law by arguing that that materials found on the land also belong to the land. By repurposing the detritus of mining and industralisation into works of art, he also poignantly comments on the impact that these operations are currently having on Country. Ganambarr attributes his early career as a builder as one of the reasons for his success in working these different materials. His practice in metal has inspired a whole generation of young Yolŋu artists to make works from old road signs, scrap metal and satellite dishes among other materials.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Waters of Gulutji
- Artist: Gunybi Ganambarr (Australian (Yolŋu, Ŋaymil clan), born 1973)
- Date: 2024
- Medium: Etched aluminum composite panel
- Dimensions: H. 103 15/16 x W. 118 1/8 in. (H. 264 x W. 300 cm.)
- Classification: Metalwork
- Object Number: 2025.611
- Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing
More Artwork
A slider containing 5 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Gunybi Ganambarr
2011
Lower Ramu River region
early to mid-20th century
Dr. Paul Baron de Rautenfeld
1925
Dr. Paul Baron de Rautenfeld
1925
Dr. Paul Baron de Rautenfeld
1925
Research Resources
The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.