December 2025

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Bathi (Pandanus Basket)

Yolŋu weavers of Arnhem Land create utilitarian, ceremonial, and decorative pieces using naturally sourced materials. This Bathi (Pandanus Basket) is made from young Pandanus spiralis leaves, harvested with a wooden hook, stripped of prickles, and dried to create strong, resilient fibres. These fibres are then twisted, coiled, or woven using various techniques to produce both functional and decorative baskets.

Typically, Bathi are made using a coiling technique which was adapted from techniques used by Indigenous women throughout Southeast Australia. Introduced to Arnhem Land weavers in the 1930’s as Missionaries began commissioning pieces in this style.

Bula’bula weavers exclusively use natural dyes, derived from locally sourced roots, leaves and grasses. These pigments are extracted and infused into pandanus fibres by boiling over an open fire, producing the rich, vibrant colours characteristic of contemporary Yolŋu weavings.

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Warraburnburn

In Burarra and Gun-nartpa languages the figure represented in this artwork is generally known as a wangarra ‘ghost spirit’. For the Warrawarra clan ghost spirits have their own particular characteristics and their own name – Warraburnburn.

The Warraburnburn and the closely related Galabarrbarr spirit (owned by the Balkarranga clan) are also manikay song topics.  The spirits are related to each other as maternal grandparent and grandchild, just as the people of Warrawarra and Balkarranga are. The dancing of the two ghost spirit figures forms the finale performance for funerals, and is the final goodbye to a deceased family member.

In many ways the Warraburnburn and Galabarrbarr ghost spirits are like people. They emerge from the patches of jungle on Warrawarra and Balkarranga country in the late afternoon and go hunting in family groups of men, women and children. They stay in contact with each other by calling out as the men hunt for fish and the women walk with their dillybags looking for vegetable food. 

The ghost spirits are associated closely with white ochre and artists commonly paint the bodies of carved figures in white. Different types of ghost spirit wear different patterns. Warraburnburn is decorated with uniform white dots while others are painted white all over. Some ghost spirits are shown with a design painted on their chest infilled with rarrk ‘cross-hatching’, the same designs that are painted onto japi an-guyinda ‘male initiations’. 

They also have supernatural characteristics including superhuman size (jarra anbaykarda ‘super tall’). They know the country intimately – some are malevolent towards humans and will lead people astray, taking them to unfamiliar and dangerous places. These malevolent spirits are likened to an-muburda ‘sorcerers’ and can conduct dangerous rituals that cause harm to people. Others are benign and will lead humans back to familiar paths and their own camps.

 

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Woven Mat

Yolŋu weavers of Arnhem Land create utilitarian, ceremonial, and decorative pieces using naturally sourced materials. This mat is made from young Pandanus spiralis leaves, harvested with a wooden hook, stripped of prickles, and dried to create strong, resilient fibres. These fibres are then twisted, coiled, or woven using traditional techniques to produce both functional and decorative mats.

Bula’bula weavers exclusively use natural dyes, derived from locally sourced roots, leaves and grasses. These pigments are extracted and infused into pandanus fibres by boiling over an open fire, producing the rich, vibrant colours characteristic of contemporary Yolŋu weavings.

Traditionally, Nganiyal (conical mats) functioned as insect screens when erected and as seating mats when folded, playing an important role in both daily life and ceremonial practices. Today, Yolŋu artists create a variety of shapes, including flat, round, and oblong mats. These non-traditional styles and the use of bright colours became more common after Missionaries began commissioning pieces in this style.

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Djomi (Fresh Water Spirit)

This design depicts the story of the artist’s ancestral dreaming, the Djómi (Fresh Water Spirit).

The Djómi figure is a mermaid-like spirit with fish tail that lives in the freshwater stream that flows out to the sea cliff near Maningrida. Djómi is known to be a very powerful fertility symbol.

“If you go there, you can get pregnant easily. Djómi has babies, and they can give other babies too. The Djómi spirit is so powerful, that women can end up with multiple babies at once, twins or sometimes even more. The Djómi spirits lay eggs near the sacred freshwater stream in Maningrida. Inside the eggs are human babies as well as young Djómi. Men do not go near that swamp, because Djomi is so powerful that men might get pregnant there too. So men are too scared of that Djómi. When we visit the Djómi freshwater spring, we can hear young Djómi  crying. They sound like normal babies crying, those Djómi spirits. They are looking for a mother. This Djómi is my dreaming, I got permission from my djungkay (ritual manager) to paint this Djómi design. For me I always ask my djunguy permission to paint, because that is our cultural way. This design also depicts the freshwater lily leaves and seaweed from the base of the sea floor.” Joy Galrbin

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Ngalyod (Rainbow Serpent)

The third part of the story is Ngalyod. Kuninjku people say there are two Rainbow serpents. One is Yingarna, who is said to have been the original creator of all ancestral beings, the ‘first mother’. Yingarna’s first born is Ngaloyd. Yingarna, or her son Ngalyod, are a common subject on contemporary Kuninjku bark paintings. 


Ngalyod is very important in Kuninjku cosmology and is associated with the creation of all sacred sites, djang, in Kuninjku clan lands. For example, ancestral stories relate how creator, or ancestral beings, had travelled across the country and had angered Ngalyod who swallowed them and returned to the earth to create the site. Today, Ngalyod protects these sites, and its power is present in each one. 

Ngalyod has both powers of creation and destruction and is most strongly associated with rain, monsoon seasons and rainbows, which are a manifestation of Ngalyod’s power and presence. Ngalyod is associated with the destructive power of the storms and with the plenty of the wet season, being both a destroyer and a giver of life. Ngalyod’s power controls the fertility of the country and the seasons.

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Yawkyawk (young women spirit) (on a rock)

“This mermaid lives in a special freshwater billabong in the manberrk (savanna woodland).

She is sitting on a rock on the edge of the kunronj (billabong). When we see the kunronj shining, and the sun goes down we call this kahbohmimihmeh.

 

 

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Sea Turtle Drfting

Turtles roam the sea as family every year even when the times to find land to hatch their young on the beach!

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Jami Bush Medicine

This is the bush flower medicine called jammi. It’s used for sores and cuts and scratches. You boil the jammi leaves up and then bath yourself in the water. You can also use it for air freshener, it smells like eucalyptus. It can open your airways.

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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 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, frightening 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 leaving his spear and 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 go 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) happen today because the Warrnyu (Flying Fox) people performed them a long time ago before the Yolngu 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…

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