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Woven Mat
Traditionally, Nganiyal (conical mats) were used as an insect screen when erected, and as a sitting mat when folded. They are used in Ceremony as well as a functional item.
Nowadays, artists weave many different shapes including flat, round and oblong.
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Wagilag ga Wititj Dhawu (Wagilag Sisters and Olive Python Story)
The Wagilag Sisters are central to the four important ceremonies of the Dhuwa moiety; the Djungguwan, the Gunabibi, the Ngulmarrk, and the Mandaialla.
The story is primarily an account of how, in the distant past, the two Wagilag Sisters came out of the southern interior and across the countryside to the Liyagalawumirr waterhole at Mirarrmina. There the younger sister profaned the pool of Wititj (the great Olive Python) by accidently allowing her blood to fall into the waterhole. Because of this, the women (and their children) were swallowed by Wititj.
All of the other sacred snakes stood up with their heads in the clouds and talked to each other with voices like thunder. The Pythons discovered that they had different languages and ‘skins’. Wititj confessed to eating the two women; his own moiety and fell to earth making a big depression in the ground. The big wind blew across the land making the first dry season. Wititj was ordered by the snakes to vomit the women and children back up. When he did this he also vomited up all the water from the waterhole, creating the monsoonal rains.
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Ganybu (Fishing Net/Drag Net)
This is a story from the old times, about how Yolngu ancestors used to live. Here the men are in the Arafura Swamp, catching the fish with a drag net, through the flooded plains and into the fish trap.