Lot 147: ALI MILLER MUNGATOPI , CIRCA 1910-1968 PUKAMANI - GRAVEYARD AND STARS Natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark

Bears artist's name, title, size, year 1959 and catalogue number 261 along with a label on the reverse. Natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark

93 by 50 cm

Cf. For related paintings see Adultery and Death - The Purukupali Story, c.1965, and Homes of the Rainbow Snake - Maratji Myth, 1964, both in the collection of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, in O'Ferrall, M.A., Keepers of the Secrets: Aboriginal Art from Arnhemland in the Collection of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 1990, p. 36, pl,36, and p.37, pl.37 respectively, where the artist is referred to by one of his alternate names, Oruputuwaie; and The Crocodile Dance, 1960s, and The Soul-Catcher Spider Web, 1960s, in Allen, L. A., Time Before Morning: Art and Myth of the Australian Aborigines, Thomas V. Cromwell, New York, 1975, pp.197, 204, respectively, illus.

The label on the reverse reads as follows: "Pukamani Ceremony: In the Tiwi Dreamtime nobody died, until the Tiwi goddess Wai-ai broke the law by making love with Tapara, the Moon Man her husband's brother, which caused the death of Jinaini, her baby son. Purakapali, father of the dead child, made a Pukamani ceremony for his dead son. This was the first death".

Although the work is dated on the back as having been painted in 1959 it is more probable that it dates from the 1960s.