GATHERING II: Dhatam, Maypal, Yukuwa / Water Lily, Shellfish, Yam
Munhala Dhamarrandji
Merrkiyawuy #2 Munungurr
Djirrirra Wununmurra
Opening Wednesday 5 November, 6 pm
With a conversation by Dr Denise Salvestro: ‘How innovative printmaking gave Yolngu women the space to enter the contemporary art world’
Exhibition runs 1 November to 5 December 2025
The Cross Art Projects
In proud collaboration with Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre
Conversation: Dr Denise Salvestro on ‘how an innovative Yolngu-controlled print studio made space for remote women artists to enter the contemporary art world’. Recording by Kwame Slusher.
In proud collaboration with Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre, the Indigenous community-controlled art centre in Yirrkala, north-east Arnhem Land. Curators, Dave Wickens and Will Stubbs
Gathering II presents three female artists who paint three key foods from bush and sea. Munhala Dhamarrandji depicts batjimurrungu, a graceful angled ear snail shell belonging to the Maypal group of edible foods; Merrkiyawuy #2 Mununggurr depicts fields of dhatam or waterlily seed pods floating on sacred water; and Djirrirra Wunungmurra paints yukuwa or yam, the sinuous plant that links Yolngu clans.
Accompanying these bark paintings are a selection of works on paper that celebrate gathering and observing foods by renowned artists Marrnyula Mununggurr, Muluymuluy Wirrpanda, the late Mrs M. Wirrpanda and Yalmakany Marawilli. All the artists except for Munhala Dhamarrandji and Bayalki Dhamarrandji have shown previously at The Cross Art Projects, making this a special seasonal gathering.
There are two different ways to read the works: the first way is a sacred one relying on dhulang or miny’tji — the sacred clan designs; and the other is secular and representational, often used for teaching and learning for Yolngu families. The prints made at Yirrkala Print Workshop are usually secular. Yolngu art is imagined and designed to inspire, as the recent exhibition Yolngu Power made so brilliantly manifest. The artists in Gathering II use the Yolngu colour scheme of red and yellow ochres, white and black to create a multitude of colour combinations held together by bold and strong definition, or delicate and reclusive designs, depending on the artist’s vision.
Two years ago, Will Stubbs noted in his text introduction to Gathering I, that the concept of gathering is central to Yolngu culture as it embraces the concepts of coming together, gathering, and collecting. There are almost twenty different translations in the Yolngu dictionary for the English word “gathering”. Will noted that when Yolngu go hunting they call out “Gatjpu!” to the spirits of the place to recognise them and be generous. The centre of attention in the earlier exhibition, was on baskets and ways of carrying foods while this sister exhibition illuminates the foods carried in the basket.
When we go hunting, that is our responsibility, our culture, so we can teach our children, the child that sits on our lap. … So the child learns and then passes it on to their children later in life. Teach them about what wild foods are out there, ganguri (wild yam), maypal (shellfish), or djitama (wild bush potato) we collect them, and the children will watch on how we cook them in the ground oven and then prepare it. It is still a part of learning, that’s how they should live, yes they should learn both sides – the laws and culture, language, English and Yolngu language (Yolngu mother). (Source: Growing up Yolngu)
Northern Australia is one of the largest regions of natural habitat remaining on earth and the rich foods of northeast Arnhem Land have sustained generations of Yolngu over millennia. The landscape is an endless expanse of savanna woodlands, interspersed by monsoonal rainforests, rivers and extensive floodplains and wetlands and a shoreline protected by mangrove forests. In this sea-coast environment, food availability expands and contracts with wet and dry seasons. All systems are impacted by encroaching saltwater and invasive species (from buffalo to gamba grass and pig weed). Community health is imperilled by industrial foods and erratic medical services. These artworks, therefore, share a profound sense of the beauty and fragility of the earth and its ecosystems.
Jo Holder
Director, The Cross Art Projects
Djirrirra Wunungmurra, Yukuwa, 2017, natural ochres on bark, 56 x 117 cm (#4978-17)
Djirrirra Wunungmurra, Yukuwa, 2020, natural ochres on bark, 94 x 44 cm (#2146-20)
Djirrirra Wunungmurra, Yukuwa, 2017, natural ochres on bark, 52 x 142 cm (#4198A)
Djirrirra Wunungmurra, Yukuwa, 2017, natural ochres on bark, 150 x 50 cm (#4699-17)
Munhala Dhamarrandji, Batjimurrungu, 2022, natural ochres on bark, 155 x 86 cm (#2184-22)
Munhala Dhamarrandji, Batjimurrungu, 2023, natural ochres on bark, 101 x 62 cm (#1293-23)
Munhala Dhamarrandji, Batjimurrungu, 2022, natural ochres on bark, 67 x 35 cm (#2890-22)
Munhala Dhamarrandji, Batjimurrungu, 2023, natural ochres on bark, 66 x 43 cm (#621-23)
Merrkiyawuy #2 Mununggurr, Dhatam, 2024, natural ochres on bark, 96 x 54 cm (#6269-24)
Merrkiyawuy #2 Mununggurr, Dhatam, 2024, natural ochres on bark, 80 x 55 cm (#5245-24)
Merrkiyawuy #2 Mununggurr, Dhatam, 2024, natural ochres on bark, 114 x 50 cm (#4898-24)
Merrkiyawuy #2 Mununggurr, Dhatam (Lillies), 2025, larrakitj, 240 x 25 cm (#5207-25)
Munhala Dhamarrandji, Gomu’, 2023, larrakitj, 216 x 16 cm (#3924-23)
Yalmakany Marawili, Wakwak at Wangurru, 2024, etching on paper, 65.6 x 50.5 cm, 15/30 (hanging) + 14/30 (#4891-24)
Mulkuṉ Wirrpanda, Ngäḏi ga Guṉdirr, 2022, etching on paper, 84 x 59 cm, 16/50 (hanging) + 17/30 (#9146-22)
Marrnyula Mununggurr, Galaḏay, 2024, collagraph + screenprint on paper, 65.2 x 50 cm, 5/30 (hanging) + 6/30 (#5408-24)
Mulkuṉ Wirrpanda, Bundjungu 15Q, 2016, woodblock on kizuki paper, 57 x 81cm, 22/25 (hanging) + 21/25 (#141-16)
Mulkuṉ Wirrpanda, Walu 15K, 2013, etching on paper, 84.7 x 67.2 cm, 3/AP (hanging) (#136-16)
Muluymuluy Wirrpanda, Buḻwutja, 2023, screenprint on paper, 58 x 57 cm, 19/40 (hanging) + 20/40 (#4716-23)
Marrnyula Mununggurr, Buku-Mitjun, 2025, etching on paper, 84.7 x 67.2 cm, 9/30 (hanging) + 11/30 (#3087-25)
Djirrirra Wunungmurra, Yukuwa, 2023, etching on paper, 98.5 x 49 cm, 15/50 (hanging) + 16/50 (#2022-23)
Foods
Dhatam/Wakwak (Yirritja/Dhuwa), Nymphaea (Water Lily)
Dhatam belongs to a genus of hardy and tender aquatic plants known to botanists as the family Nymphaeaceae. To the remarkable artist, author, and senior custodian. the late Ms. M. Wirrpanda, there are, “two similar plants: dhatam, a lotus is Dhuwa. Then there is wakwak, which is a lily, and is Yirritja. The dhatam has delicious seeds in a big pod and the skin is thin so you can open with fingernails and the oily seeds spill out into your mouth. The flowers of the Dhatam are big but those on the wakwak are smaller. They can be pink, purple or white. It is in the Madarrpa, Mangalili and Dhalwanu songs. We sing it. We cry it”. (Source: M. Wirrpanda, Midawarr/Harvest, p.100.)
Maypal: batjimurrunu, Cassidula rugata (Angled Ear Snail)
Maypal is a collective term which covers all edible invertebrates except bee larvae. It includes foods from the sea and the land such as land snails and insect larvae, for example edible and high-protein Witchetty grubs. Maypal are tasty and easy to harvest; just go down to the beach or among the mangroves. Maypal sustain coastal people not only physically, but also spiritually and emotionally. Huge middens of shells along Australia’s northern coastline attest to the popularity of maypal: in some areas, middens more than 30 metres high date back many thousands of years. Yolngu classifications of local shellfish types reveals the thinking that tends to link people, animals, plants, and other elements of the cosmos through social relations and engender systems that look and feel very different from the formal conventions of western style sciences. The linguist Bentley James, states in his remarkable field book Maypal, Mayali Ga Wänga: Shellfish, Meaning & Place, that Yolngu classifications of local shellfish types emphasise symbiotic and spiritual connectedness to place and bring into relief the differences between Indigenous knowledge systems and those of the dominant but more recent discourse of western sciences. (Source: Bentley James, Maypal, pp. 257-8.)
Yukuwa (Yirritja), Vigna vexillate (Stringy Yam)
Yukuwa is a yam found open forest and woodland whose annual appearance is a metaphor for the renewal of the people and their land. Yukuwa is also the name of the brilliant senior artist Djirrirra Wunungmurra. Long Yam culture is strong amongst the Yolngu people. This is tied to a renewal ceremony in the area between Gäṉgaṉand the sea known as Balambala described as the next river from Gäṉgaṉ. This is a cleared area which is an ancient ceremonial site at which special men’s ceremonies involving both ḻarrakitj (or Dhan’parr- bark coffin) and special yiḏaki occurred. An ancient hero known as Burruluburrulu danced here. Traditionally the invitation to such a ceremony is presented as an object in the form of a yam with strings emanating from it with feathered flowers at the end. This is a suggestion of the kinship lines which tie groups together.
Artists
Munhala Dhamarrandji depicts the Djambarrpuyngu clan design of Batjimurrungu. This design carries the miny’tji of Batjimurrungu a shellfish of the mangroves area which climbs the aerial roots of the mangroves as the tide comes in. It is sung by the Djambarrpuyngu clan with the Guyula / Dhamarrandji surnames and relates to the Buckingham Bay area of Gurula Dhulmuwandany. It is a design learnt by the artist via her mother’s first husband and is her classificatory sister clan. This place and design, songs and the shellfish itself are related to the songlines of the Djang’kawu sisters of the Dhuwa moiety. Batjimurrungu is Cassidula angulifera or the Angular Ear Shell. The synonyms are miniminipi and mitjalanganing. Munhala’s bark paintings were first included in the 2023 group exhibition, Gatjpu at Laundry Gallery in Darwin.
Merrkiyawuy #2 Mununggurr Is a painter of dhatam or water lily seed pods and the basis of her sacred design. Amongst the dhatam, two ancestral figures travelled across Gälpu clan lands during the days of early times called Wangarr. One is Wititj, the powerful rainbow serpent (olive python) and the companion is Djaykung the Javanese filesnake. They lived in amongst the dhatam causing ripples and rainbows (Djari) on the surface of the water (one reference in the cross hatch). The Galpu clan miny’tji, the sacred clan design behind the lillies, represents Djari (rainbows) and the power of the lightning. It also refers to the power of the storm created by Wititj. The diagonal lines represent trees that have been knocked down as Wititj moves from place to place.
Djirrirra Yukuwa Wunungmurra (also known as Yukuwa) held her first major exhibition in a 3-artist show at Raft Artspace in Darwin in 2006. A year later she was selected for Cross Currents, a major art survey at the Museum of Contemporary Art and her first solo show was in 2009 at Vivien Anderson Gallery. She is also a skilled printmaker. She lives at the remote homeland of Gangan and has three children. Yukuwa is one of the personal names of the artist.
Guest Speaker
Dr Denise Salvestro was awarded a PhD by the Australian National University, supervised by the renowned anthropologist Howard Morphy. Denise wrote on the history of Yolngu print making and the development of the print studio at Yirkalla in northeast Arnhem Land. Denise also studied Yolngu Matha Language & Cultural Studies at Charles Darwin University.
Later she helped bring to life a historically significant touring exhibition Balnhdhurr – A Lasting Impression a celebration of the studio (established in 1995) where printmaking flourishes under the supervision of talented Yolngu artists such as Marrnyula Mununggurr and the late Mrs M Marawilli.
Thanks to Balnhdhurr the achievements of a remote print studio—and significant cultural and historical stories—were shared. Subsequently the Yolngu Power exhibition (Art Gallery NSW 2025), featured a dazzling room of works from Yirkalla Print Studio.
Before researching her thesis, Denise and her partner Neale were based in Nhulunbuy (the mining town near Yirkalla) where for twelve years where they worked as dentists serving the surrounding remote Homelands.
Balnhdhurr was presented and toured by Artback NT in association with Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre from 2017-2022.
Dr Denise Salvestro at the opening of Gathering II, discussing ‘how an innovative Yolngu-controlled print studio made space for remote women artists to enter the contemporary art world’.
References
Maypal, Mayali Ga Wänga: Shellfish, Meaning & Place, a Yolngu Bilingual Identification Guide to Shellfish of North East Arnhem Land, 2016.
Midawarr / Harvest: The Art of Mulkun Wirrpanda and John Wolseley, National Museum Australia, 2017.
Will Stubbs, Gathering I, 2023.
Acknowledgements
To the artists and Buku Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre (Will Stubbs, Dave Wickens and Jake Taylor. Art Cross Art Projects to Belle Blau, Reiana Aramoana, Robert Pulie and Phillip Boulten. Special thanks to special guest Denise Salvestro.