Wukun (Daymbalipu Gatanikpa) Wanambi: Destiny 2018

Mullet travelled from river to river, ocean to ocean, looking for their destiny. This is at Gurka'wuy. They also travelled to other various communities. We sing a song, and dance as well, to carry the tide of Gurka'wuy water, bringing the guya (fish) into the river, to Trial Bay. There is a place called Marraŋu, Golumala, they sing the song there, where the three rivers come together. The water is called Gudutja and they are looking for their destiny, just like you and I tracing our family tree on a computer, looking for our great, great grandfathers and grandmothers.

The Larrakitj had its traditional use for the Yolngu of North east Arnhem Land as an ossuary or bone container erected as a memorial to a dead kinsman up to a decade after death. After death the body of the deceased was often ceremonially placed on a raised platform and left to the elements for an appropriate time. The area would then be abandoned until the next stage of the ritual. This took place once it was determined that the essential eternal spirit of the deceased had completed its cyclical journey to the spring from which it had originated and would in time return again. This might be several years.

Whilst the body was ‘lying in state’ others got wind of the death, perhaps by subliminal message and made preparations to journey to the site of mortuary. Usually enough time had elapsed for the bones of the deceased to be naturally cleansed on the platform. The essence of the soul within the bone was made ready for final rites when other outside participants necessary for its safe journey arrived. Ritual saw the bones of the deceased placed within the termite hollowed memorial pole for final resting. Mortuary ritual would end with the placement of the Larrakitj containing the bones standing in the bush. Over time the Larrakitj and its contents would return to mother earth. The Larrakitj has often been referred to as the mother’s womb.

Once sedentary mission communities were established in Arnhem Land it became impractical to abandon permanent communities and outlawed to expose corpses on platforms. However the cosmology of the Yolngu and the essence of ritual mortuary ceremony remains just as important. Larrakitj continue to be produced as the equivalent of headstones or to contain the personal effects of a deceased (which might be dangerous unless removed from the living because of the emanations imbued by contact with the deceased).

A further role for this cultural form is as a fine art object and an instructional tool for younger generations. Artworks of this nature have multiple layers of metaphor and meaning which give lessons about the connections between an individual and specific pieces of country (both land and sea), as well as the connections between various clans but also explaining the forces that act upon and within the environment and the mechanics of a spirit’s path through existence. The knowledge referred to by this imagery deepens in complexity and secrecy as a person progresses through a life long learning process.

But there is something that sets this piece and those others by Wukun in this style from all previous forms. Commencing with a work made for the Kerry Stokes Collection in 2001 which retained the natural roots of the trunk (which the artist defined as four rivers flowing under the rocks in Trial Bay) Wukun has defied previous convention in allowing the natural form of the tree to be emphasised. It is part of the understanding of larrakitj that they are as even and cylindrical as the maker can achieve. Some songs compare them to the finely worked hull of a Makassan prau.

Wukun flouts this in choosing and embracing tree trunks which have bends, twists, swellings, holes and sinuous form.