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Yawkyawk and Kunkurra
‘Yawkyawk swim underneath the rock. They always stay there. When the sun comes out they come out from underneath the river, make themselves warm. They sit and they look around. When they sit, they cry to themselves. Ngaldjorlhbo (mother of everything) she created them – yawkyawk and the other one [Ngalng].
The Mimih one is a long way from the stone country. He is from my uncles country Bardijokhang. My uncle is the famous artist Crusoe Kurddal and he carves and paints Mimih.
Sometimes yawkyawk sit inside the rock. Sometimes they go out to find the food manme and the mankung (sugarbag). Also they can sing inside the rock cave. Sometimes yawkyawk will see the big rain. When the big rain comes they start looking and when the rain comes they go inside and hide themselves.
Some yawkyawk stay on the dry land in a special place inland from Bardijolhwang.
Some of the stones get stuck on the breasts of the yawkyawk.
There are two yawkyawk in this artwork. One, the wet season yawkyawk has a round face and long hair. The dry season yawkyawk has short hair. There are lots of different yawkyawk in the water.
In my fabric they are all coming together with the grass trees and leaves and the blowing wind. Some of the leaves will fall onto the water. All the round shapes are kunred (rocky country) with dry grass.
This country is called Gamadery (sp), which is located near Mankorlod and Korlobididah, Arnhem Land.’
Janet Marawarr 2022
‘My designs, they are all alive living up in my head’- Janet Marawarr
Janet Marawarr has depicted kunkurra, the spiralling wind associated with several sites in the Kardbam clan. On one level, this design can be interpreted as a depiction of the kinds of mini-cyclones common during the wet season in Arnhem Land, where the artist lives. Kunkurra also relates specifically to a site called Bilwoyinj, near Mankorlod, on the artist’s clan estate.
At this site, two of the most important Kuninjku creation beings, a father and son known as na-korrkko, are believed to have hunted and eaten a goanna. They left some of the goanna fat behind at the site, which turned into the rock that still stands there today.
Bilwoyinj site is also a ceremonial ground for a ceremony called Yabbaduruwa, a major ceremony owned by the Yirridja patrimoiety. The Yabbaduruwa ceremony is primarily concerned with initiation, land ownership and promoting the cyclical regeneration of the human and natural worlds.
