Wolpa Wanambi here depicts a hero from the mythical Dreamtime: Wuyal. This Great Ancestor of the Aboriginal people of Yirrkala (the Marrakulu clan) was a hunter who pursued small kangaroos (rock wallabies) that lived around Mount Saunders, near a site that later became sacred, called Nhulunbuy.
The background, composed of dotted and hatched patterns, symbolizes the Nhulunbuy region, offering a kind of map made up of an assemblage of ritual forms. These forms and their decorative motifs are directly inspired by the region’s religious paintings. (ed. 37/50)
