AustLit

'I. 'Moon and Evening Star', Adelaide, October 2019/Yirrkala, June 2019

Among the glories of Tarnanthi, the Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia in 2019, one work has special significance for me. It is a painting made with earth pigment on stringybark by Buwathay Munyarryun called Wirrmu ga Djurrpun, 'Moon and Evening Star' (Figure 1). Powerfully vertical, 225 by 62 cm, on a piece of bark that flares slightly at each end, the composition speaks precisely and with authority. You can feel the care with which the brush has made its marks. Animals, human footprints and birds move up through the panels of downward flowing water on either side to a crowning horizontal band where crescent moon and star appear white against the black sky. ' (Introduction)