Garraŋali, 2025

Garraŋali

Yolŋu have repurposed found metal since first contact with Makassans. Balanda, outsiders first knew them as the Murrŋiny a name

given to them by neighbouring groups which references their steel spearheads. The Found movement was originated by Gunybi

Ganambarr around 2011 when the elders endorsed recycled materials as acceptable to render sacred designs. This is a repurposed sign.

Garraŋali is the Maḏarrpa clans crocodile nest. The Maḏarrpa call themselves of Bäru (Ancestral Crocodile). Bäru leaves the beaches of Yathikpa to go up stream to the inland site of Garraŋali. Freshwater wells rise from the black soil plains that sustain an oasis like jungle. King des will reach this far creang a sacred ferle and brackish mix. This is where Bäru makes its nest. It is these waters at Garraŋali that contain the Maḏarrpa soul.

This powerful and dangerous place is affected by springs of freshwater and dal surge from the northern coast of Blue Mud Bay – a place where the two waters mix to become a ferle one. Ancestral Fires came through this area imbued with the powers of Bäru the Ancestral Crocodile – power totem for the Maḏarrpa clan. The waters are sacred because as the Maḏarrpa will tell you – they are from this water and upon death and through appropriate ritual they will return to this font of Maḏarrpa ancestral souls.

Garraŋali is protected as a special place of significance for the Maḏarrpa by the intense heat of the lingering Ancestral Fire and the real presence of Bäru protecng its nests.

The arst is the eldest son of Barunga Statement arst Marrirra Marawili’s second wife. He resides at Yilpara with his own

family and increasingly has been taking on the arsc mantle from his father. This is ancipated to connue following his

father’s death in 2018.