Floating life: contemporary Aboriginal fibre art

56 The Djang’kawu sisters are singing/crying their creation. There are a lot of stories in this for men and for women. It draws a metaphor between birth and the qualities of a sacred spring in dhuwa law. A source of new life. The newborn child is warmed on nganmarra, a large circular woven mat which is itself a metaphor for the sun in dhuwa law. And also a source of new life. This nganmarra is part of Yolngu women. That is why we Yolngu women always weave, because it was given to us by these ancestral women. They made the mat for the purpose of birth. To weave new life into being. If that new life finds a cold environment it will cry. But in the songs the cry changes from that of the baby into that of lindirritj (lorikeet). The lorikeets are the metaphorical children of the Djang’kawu. In the mornings these birds dry their dew-soaked feathers in the morning sun. Even now in the ceremony you see all those feathered armbands hanging from the special tree, gaypal. All the different regalia of each dhuwa clan hanging from this tree. I cry the song for the particular dhuwa clan whose sacred feathered objects dried at that place in the song. The children of gulnga. Our children. That is where our children felt the warmth. As they perch on the branch in the pre-dawn dark the lorikeet are crying ‘Where is the sun?! Where is the sun?!’ This is also the time that women will keen. Women’s traditional lament or crying song is called milkarri (literally ‘tears’). Before the dawn only the women and the lorikeets will cry. They cry together the same song. The lorikeets cry for warmth and dryness. The women cry for the lorikeets — their helpless newborn. There is a law that women keen in the dark before sunrise. Not just dhuwa but yirritja as well. Because the Djang’kawu sisters gave us this law to sing the elements and anything living only at dawn. This is really a very sacred story but I have told only the surface. The rest must remain hidden. Previous page Anna Bulkunu Garrawurra Liyagawumirr people NT b.1928 Shuttle with feathered bush string (detail) 1993 Wood, red-winged parrot and red-collared lorikeet feathers with bark fibre string 4.2 x 27 x 7cm Acc. 2008.270 Purchased 2008 with funds from Margaret Mittelheuser, am , and Cathryn Mittelheuser, am , through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Above Peter Wadaymu Ganambarr Ngaymil people NT 1930–2005 Circumcision armbands 1993 Bark fibre string with feathers Two pieces: 1.3 x 8.2cm (diam.); 1.5 x 8.3cm (diam.) Acc. 2008.283.001–002 Purchased 2008 with funds from Margaret Mittelheuser, am , and Cathryn Mittelheuser, am , through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Opposite David Wurrbula Gurruwiwi Galpu people NT b.1940 Armband tassels (detail) 1993 Bark fibre string, red-collared lorikeet and cockatoo feathers, wool, with native beeswax Two of six pieces: dimensions variable Acc. 2008.266.001–006 Purchased 2008 with funds from Margaret Mittelheuser, am , and Cathryn Mittelheuser, am , through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation