Gunybi Ganambarr

Across Country: Five Years of Indigenous Australian Art from the Collection | 5 November 2011 — 21 October 2012 | GOMA | Free admission

Gunybi Ganambarr was born into the small Ngaymil clan at Yanunbi outstation in north-eastern Arnhem Land. He now lives primarily in his mother’s country at Gangan (120km south-west of Yirrkala). These communities provide inspiration for the artist’s bark paintings and larrakitj (memorial poles). Sacred to the Ngaymil people are the diamond and elliptical markings with which Ganambarr covers the entire surface of this work. These miny’tji (clan designs) represent water, both fresh and salt, acknowledging its importance both as a vital resource and in its spiritual role uniting communities. Baraltja is an area of flood plains that drains into northern Blue Mud Bay, know for special qualities pertaining to fertility and the seasonal mixing of salt and fresh waters. At the point where the waters meet, they become muddied by ancestral activities below the surface bubbling up through the mangroves.