Banumbirr

San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of the Lam Family.

Banumbirr

Artist: Gali Yalkarriwuy (Galpu / Australian, born ca. 1948)

Place made:Northern Territory, Australia

General region:Oceania

Culture: Aboriginal Australians (Galpu language group)

Date: 2003

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Dimensions:

78 5/16 × 52 3/4 in. (199 × 134 cm)

Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of the Lam Family

Object number: 2016.14.16

Provenance: Formerly in the collection of Dr. Dorothy Lam; her gift to SAMA

Label Text

This painting depicts three feathered morning star poles (banumbirr) among yams, witchetty grubs, maggots, butterflies, and stingrays (the artist’s totem). The poles are used in initiation ceremonies and for communication with the deceased. During the Creation Period, as the moon set and the sun rose, the morning star (a planet) entered the sky, tracing the east to west journey of the ancestral Djankg’kawu sisters from the island of the spirits of the dead. At twilight, the deceased spirits performed a ceremony, kicking up the island sand as they danced and bringing darkness across the land. Today, the morning star ceremony is invoked, at dawn, to allow communication between the living and the dead. The daily ascent of the morning star is symbolic of the cycle of life.

Gali Yalkarriwuy Gurruwiwi is a custodian of morning star poles and is best known for his morning star pole sculptures, consisting of ochres, feathers, and bush string on wood.

(Exhibition label, 2017)

Not on view

In Collection(s)

The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.

Artwork

Banumbirr

Banumbirr