'Nyapililngu', Australian Aboriginal Wood Carving

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'Nyapililngu', Australian Aboriginal Wood Carving

About the Item

Galuma Maymuru, "Nyapililngu," Carving. Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art. This carving represents Nyapilingu as described in the story below. The artist is a Mangalili woman, daughter of the legendary artist Narritjin. She lives with her husband Dhukal Wirrpanda, leader of the Dhudi Djapu clan, at Dhuruputjpi. Nyapilingu is a spirit woman who lived in Wangarr times, the Dreaming. Nyapilingu set out from Ambakamba (Groote Eylandt) in a paper bark canoe and travelled across to the mainland and then north and west as far as the central Arnhem Land coast. Wherever she went she marked the country with her activities. Nyapilingu gave important culture to the people whose country she passed through. She wrapped herself in a sheet of paperbark so that men could not see her body, so women followed her in this. She used Wapitja (digging stick) to collect food and to peel the bark from the stringybark tree and she made containers from paperbark, which she carried on her head. Nyapilingu also taught women how to look for the water lily ‘yoku’ and prepare it for eating, and how to make string and weave pandanus for bathi (dilly bags). The possum fur string which she wore in a cross shaped arrangement across her chest is a signature of hers (‘X’). The wavy lined pattern belongs only to the Mangalili, levels of meaning include her blood running from her scalp torn in the ritual act of a mother mourning and tracts of sacred sand at Djarrakpi that is imbued by this. In her travels through Mangalili country, Nyapilingu travelled with Guwak (night bird) and Marrnu (possum), making Mangalili totems, giving the people sacred objects and ceremony, and using Wapitja, her digging stick, for stripping bark from trees, and making Mangalili water holes - as she plunged her Wapitja into the ground, water would spring up. The Yinapunapu is a low relief sand sculpture of a long elliptical shape. It is used in Mangalili mortuary ceremony to keep the contamination of death at bay. The Yinapunapu is represented by the skeleton of Yambirrku, the Parrot Fish being cleaned by the sandcrabs. Wanupini clouds that can herald a death from the horizons, seen most often just before and after the ‘Wet’. It can be marked by an ‘X’ which is a metaphor for the Ancestral Creator Woman Nyapalingu. She mourned the death of Ancestral Hunters and in her grief tore her scalp. The sacred design behind the clouds represent the sand dunes of Djarrakpi where she resides and the saltwater country of the Mangalili. The sculpture stands firm on the sacred rock Muwandi that is located in the tidal waters of Djarrakpi. It is a metaphor itself for Mangalili foundation, immovable both above and below the surface of the water. The ancestral fisherman by the same name stood on this rock as Djarrakpi residents do today spearing fish that feed around it.

Creator:
Galuma Maymuru 1 (Artist)
Dimensions:
Height: 53.55 in (136 cm)Width: 3.94 in (10 cm)Depth: 3.94 in (10 cm)
Style:
Modern (In the Style Of)
Materials and Techniques:
Wood,Carved
Place of Origin:
Australia
Period:
21st Century
Date of Manufacture:
2013
Condition:
Seller Location:
London, GB
Reference Number:
1stDibs: 1507101368254