Yawkyawk
Date1999
Object number00031795
NameSculpture
MediumGrass (Pandanus spiralis), ochre, feathers (Varied Lorikeet and Pacific White Faced Heron), PVC fixative.
DimensionsOverall: 1630 x 535 x 275 mm
Display Dimensions: 1600 x 550 x 260 mm
Copyright© Lena Yarinkura
ClassificationsArt
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionSculpture by Lena Yarinkura of a pregnant Yawkyawk spirit. Made from pandanus grass painted in brown, black and white ochre, and is decorated with feathers from the varied Lorikeet and the Pacific White Faced Falcon.
Lena Yarinkura is a Rembarrnga woman based outside the Central Arnhem Land community of Maningrida. She regularly depicts Yawk Yawks, or mermaids, that live in her country near Bolkjam.
HistoryYawkyawks are ancestor spirits. During the time of creation they travelled from the saltwater at Gupanga to Gochan on the Cada River. There, as a result of many adventures, they changed into mermaids, or Ngalkunburriyaymi. According to Aboriginal Dreamings, Yawkyawks are still living in lagoons on sacred sites, many with Ngalyod, the Rainbow Serpent. Yawkyawks and weaving associated with ancestral women are powerful symbols of fertility.
In 1989 Lena Yarinkura started making sculptures using string, paperbark and ochre pigments. Small at first, by 1994 her fibre art had become much larger. During the 1990s these sculptures were unique in Arnhem Land, and Lena was awarded the National Aboriginal Art Award for her work in 1996. Her sculptures are usually of well known mythologies told by the elders of western Central Arnhem Land where she lives. The figures are secular, though they are similar to the small spirit dolls customarily held by women during Mularra ceremonies.
SignificanceThis woven grass sculpture represents the important ancestral story of the Yawkyawk, and signals the growing importance of weaving in remote Indigenous communities.
A key artist in the development of fibre sculpture, Lena Yarinkura was the first artist to use fibre to depict mythogical figures.
