May 2024

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Waterholes (Kubumi)

Kubumi is a sacred site on the Mann River. This is its story, as told by a ritual manager of the site, Lulu Laradjbi, with the authority of her husband Mick Kubarkku, a land owner of that country.

Ngalyod the Rainbow Serpent pierced the rock at a place called Bolerrhlerrh and journeyed downstream from there to Ngalmalanj. The camping place Kubumi is downstream from there but at Ngalmalanj the serpent was blocked. It pushed down into the riverbed, pushed into the earth, sinking down forever. Now it lives under the rocky riverbed. That site continues downstream. Upstream is the site Molerrhlerrh, which has a waterfall and a big waterhole. There the serpent moved inside, downstream, to the lower region.

During the dry season at Kubumi, the Mann River shrinks to a series of deep waterholes, exposing the tunnels through the rocky outcrop that interconnect the pools.

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Wak Wak

This painting depicts a sacred site at ‘Kurrurldul’, an outstation south of Maningrida.

The ‘rarrk’, or abstract crosshatching, on this work represents the design for the crow totem ancestor called ‘Djimarr’. Today this being exists in the form of a rock, which is permanently submerged at the bottom of Kurrurldul Creek. The ‘Djimarr’ rock in the stream at Kurrurldul is said to move around and call out in a soft hooting tone at night. Both the stone itself and the area around it are considered sacred.

The imagery represents the rock mentioned above at the bottom of Kurrurldul creek, which is the final transmutation of the dreaming ancestor ‘Djimarr’. Finally, the pattern used here is also the crow design used in the sacred ‘Mardayin’ ceremony, which is a large regional patri-moiety ceremony now rarely conducted in central and eastern Arnhem Land.