Title
Yirrkala story
1961
Artist
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Details
- Place where the work was made
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Yirrkala
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North-east Arnhem Land
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Northern Territory
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Australia
- Date
- 1961
- Media category
- Bark painting
- Materials used
- natural pigments on bark
- Dimensions
- 167.0 x 67.5 cm
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Gift of Mollie Gowing 1980
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 25.1980
- Copyright
- © Mawalan Marika/Copyright Agency
- Artist information
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Mawalan Marika
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
On the other side of Melville Bay a man, Murruma, was killed by some men in a fight. Three of his brothers have buried him in the grave and now they are dancing with the women for him. When the finished dancing they decide to go and finish a log and they put his bones inside it and now six men have carried the log to another place and the women are crying for him and the men dance while the music is played – the clay sticks and the didgeridoo. After they have finished dancing around the log they find his sacred dilly bag and all of the people dance and sing around this. The bag is made from string from a tree. The birds have pulled the end of the string and it is frayed.
[Art Centre documentation attached to the verso of the bark]
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Places
Where the work was made
Yirrkala
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Exhibition history
Shown in 2 exhibitions
Older Australian masters: an exhibition of works by major Australian artists executed in the later years of their careers, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 16 Mar 1992–12 Apr 1992
Gamarada, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 15 Nov 1996–16 Feb 1997
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Bibliography
Referenced in 3 publications
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Edmund Capon AM, OBE, Steven Miller, Tony Tuckson, James Scougall, Mollie Gowing, Harry Messel, Craig Brush, Ronald Fine, Alison Fine, Gordon Davies, Rosalind Davies, Christopher Hodges, Helen Eager, Rosemary Gow, Sandra Phillips, Daphne Wallace and Ken Watson, Gamarada, Sydney, 1996, 48 (colour illus.).
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Barry Pearce., Older Australian masters: an exhibition of works by major Australian artists executed in the later years of their careers, 'Preface', Sydney, 1991, (illus.). not paginated, no catalogue numbers
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Jill Sykes, Look, 'Mollie Gowing: celebration of a passionate and generous enthusiast', pg. 28-29, Sydney, Dec 2006-Jan 2007, 28 (colour illus.).
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