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Warrnyu Dhawu (Flying Fox Story)

Back in the Creation time, Warrnyu (Flying Foxes) once lived like men, in the cave at the place called Kurrki Warrnyu Yirri Djaringal (they also lived in caves called Wadatilmurr & Gurngurmirrngu). Warrnyu lived in these caves for many years and then one day Djanyarr (The Dog) an ancestral being in the form of a man, came along. He was looking around for a place to live. Djanyarr heard the sound of a Flying Fox screaming. He went down to the cliff and he pushed the rock and the water came out at the Ganalbingu place called Gurrkawakarrmurr. He then went into the cave and into the sacred hole, frightened all the Flying Fox away. When he went into the hole he left his dilly bag in the tree and went out on the other side of the sacred cave and left the spear and the woomera. He sat there for a long time. The Dog made three streams and the water went inside the cave. Two of these streams are good drinking water. In the middle it is a sacred water. No-one drinks from the middle of the stream. Children, men, women, young boys or girls are not allowed to drink from the middle of the stream. If they drink the water from the middle of the stream they will get grey too early.

At Kurrki Warrnyu Yirri Ngilaya Djaringal, the Flying Fox made himself into a young man… that’s what Aboriginal people do today. They have ceremonies and dances to make the young boys into men. The songs are called Yirrarwu, Gulumu, Rruburra and Burryun. Dhapi (initiation ceremony) happens today because the Warrnyu (Flying Fox) people performed them a long time ago before the Yolgnu people. It was the Warrnyu people who first performed circumcision of the young boys to make them into men. It all happened at Kurrki Warrnyu Yirri Ngilaya Djaringal, this is how this place got its name.

Leaving behind the cave at Kurrki Warrnyu Yirri Djaringal, the Dog travelled west across the Arafura Swamp and came to Djalkulmurr (Mount Delight). From there he travelled north and came to Dunganda (a hill situated a few kilometres east of Ramingining). There he met a female Dog, then they both headed north and came to a place called Garanydjirrmurr where they spoke the Mildjingi language. From Garanydjirrmurr they changed their direction and went west through Guliny’barra, Burgumara and onto the plains. When they reached the plains they smelled something cooking, way up in the north – at Wessel Islands. The aroma they smelt was so enticing that they decided to go there. Lungurrma (the north-east wind) was carrying the smell. One Dog headed north again, but the other Dog decided not to go with him and went back the opposite way. The first Dog that went to Malwanatharra (Sandy Point) went into the sea following its nose to wherever the smell was coming from. It is believed that this Dog still lives in the sea…

Categories: Bula'bula Arts

Name: Roy Burnyila

Language: Ganalbingu

Community: Ramingining

Biography:

Born in 1955 in his father’s country, Ngalyindi, Central Arnhem Land,  Burnyila learnt to paint under the tuition of his father. He paints the Arafura Swamp and personal totems such as the Yalman (water lilies), Gumang (magpie geese), Warrnyu (flying fox), Banda (Longneck turtles) and Bapi (snakes). Burnyila is also renowned for his single coloured lined rarrk. 

 

Roy's style is distinctive in that his palette tends towards light yellow and whites which are offset by the black he puts in the crosshatching. His cross hatching is "old fashioned" single colour cross hatching as against the more familiar grouping of lines by colour. Here the lines of the same colour are laid down in fours and fives or more before going onto the next colour. 

Burnyila appeared in the 1967 documentary film Across the Top by Malcolm Douglas, documenting the tradition life in Arnhem Land,  Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape York. Burnyila’s paintings also feature in the film Twelve Canoes and on the website www.12canoes.com.au documenting Yolngu culture in Ramingining, Central Arnhem Land.

Burnyila was at the forefront of Aboriginal Art, being included in the group exhibition Mulgurrum Outstation in 1983, held at the Ewing Paton Gallery, Melbourne. Then featuring in the exhibition Objects and Representations from Ramingining in 1984, held at the Power Institute of Contemporary Art, Sydney.

Burnyila was an artist in residency in the aboriginal community of Campbelltown, NSW in 1985, where he continued to paint and refine his unique style of crosshatching and swamp totems. Burnyila created six Dupan (Hollow Logs) for the renowned 1988 Aboriginal Memorial, an installation of 200 Dupan commemorating the deaths of indigenous people since white occupation. The installation was exhibited at the Biennial of Sydney- Beneath the Southern Cross, before moving to the National Gallery of Australia as a permanent display.

Burnyila's paintings were displayed in the 1991 exhibition “Art of Arafura Swamp” held at the Araluen Centre, Alice Springs. The exhibition drew attention to the Arafura Swamp, listed as a National Heritage Estate by the Commonwealth Government of Australia in 1994.

Burnyila participated in printmaking workshops held in Ramingining in 1997, by printmaker Theo Trembay. Burnyila produced numerous prints, commonly depicting the Arafura Swamp. He further completed a Certificate II in Visual Arts at the Charles Darwin University in 2013.

Burnyila was successfully preselected for the 2012 Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, for his work titled Raypiny dhawu (freshwater story).

 

With over 30 group exhibitions, and works in numerous public and private collections, Burnyila continues to be a sought after artist.

 

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