Birrkuda Ringgitj (wild Honey Design) — Gawurin, Gouarin, Gawarrin, Gawirrin, Garwirin, Gawerin, Joe

Birrkuda ringgitj (wild honey design)


gawurin, gouarin, gawarrin, gawirrin, garwirin, gawerin, joe (1935 - 2016)

Discover Gawirrin Gumana's powerful rarrk paintings of Yolngu culture & Arnhem Land landscapes. Explore his significant role as an artist & cultural leader in Australia.

The design illustrates the clan estates connected to the honey ancestor at Gawarratja. There is now only one surviving member of this group, the Manatja clan, saltwater Dhalwangu clan group, because most were decimated, allegedly by a massacre in the early 1900s. (Andrew McMillan in An intruder’s guide to east Arnhem Land, Duffy & Snellgrove, 2001, alleges that the residents of Gangan were massacred in 1910 by police from Ngukurr. It is also discussed in the notes for Yothu Yindi