Lot 49: YIRAWALA 1903 - 1976 UNTITLED (JUNBARBAR)

bears artist's name, title and size on the reverse

54 BY 23CM

natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark

Likely to have been painted at Minjilang (Croker Island), Western Arnhem Land
Private collection

The inscription on the back of this bark painting suggests that the image is related to a family of giants, the 'Junbarbar', who were cannibals in ancestral times. Sandra Le Brun Holmes collected a series of six paintings (now in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia) about one of the giants, Mowani. These paintings are illustrated in Holmes, S. Le Brun, Yirawala: Painter of the Dreaming, Sydney: Hale & Iremonger, 1994, plates 105-110, with a description of the narrative on pages 148-49.