Milŋiyawuy

Label

The little stars illuminate the depths of the water. Those ones that live on the earth move above. They go up, becoming faint, and then they are gone–just the same as with people. They all travel up that same river, the one that is also represented on the ground–Milŋiyawuy. Up above is their spirit reflection.      —NAMINAPU MAYMURU-WHITE

Naminapu Maymuru-White learned the story of Milŋiyawuy from her father’s brother, Narritjin Maymuru, developing it into her own innovative yuta miny’tji (new designs). These two works illustrate this development, as she has gradually shed the traditional Maŋgalili clan designs to focus on the shimmering constellations of the Milky Way. Retaining their connection to the ancestral narrative of Milŋiyawuy, these works are meditations on the passage from life to death and the transformation from earthly being to spiritual form.

From the 2022 exhibition Maḏayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala, curated by Mr. W. Waṉambi; Djambawa Marawili AM; Wäka Munuŋgurr; Yinimala Gumana; Henry Skerritt; and Kade McDonald

Course History

ANTH 27.01, Economic Anthropology, Maron Greenleaf, Fall 2022

ANTH 31.01/WGSS 36.01, Gender in Cross Cultural Perspectives, Sabrina Billings, Fall 2022

ENVS 85.01/NAIS 81.04, Land, Love, and Kinship, Nicholas Reo, Fall 2022

GEOG 11.01, Qualitative Methods, Abigail Neely, Fall 2022

GEOG 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Fall 2022

NAIS 25.01, Indian Country Today, N. Bruce Duthu, Fall 2022

SART 27.01, Printmaking I, Tricia Treacy, Fall 2022

Exhibition History

Madayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Paintings from Yirrkala, Henry Skerritt and Jami Powell, September 3 - December 4, 2022, Luise and Morton Kaish Gallery, Owen Robertson Cheatham Gallery, Citrin Family Gallery, Northeast Gallery, Engles Family Gallery, Israel Sack Gallery, Rush Family Gallery, Harteveldt Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire

Provenance

Buku Larrngay Mulka, Yirrkala, Northern Territory, Australia; Alison Kelly Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; sold to Will Owen (1952-2015) and Harvey Wagner (1931-2017), Chapel Hill, North Carolina, April 22, 2005; given to present collection, 2011.

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Subjects