Macassan Prau

The painting depicts a fishing vessel, a Macassan prau, and it also relates to a place called Yarrinya in the northwest corner of Blue Mud Bay in Arnhem Land. This place belongs to a group of Yirritja cans including the Munyuku clan. This work is by the legendary Arnhem Land leader Wonggu Mununggur, who had rights to paint this story through his maternal grandmother, a Munyuku woman. The prau has a distinctive square sail and fleets of these vessels with many hundreds of men came to the Arnhem Land coast each year to collect trepang or beche-de-mer and turtle shell. The fleets came each year from southern Sulawesi in the Celebes and the people of Arnhem Land would anticipate their arrival with these sails appearing on the horizon on the westerly winds that brought the annual thunderstorms and monsoonal rains. They then returned on the east or southeasterly winds that herald the dry season.

The painting is a night scene and a black background has been overpainted with red. A man stands atop the mast, while two others appear to be resting below deck in the cabin. Note the unusual depiction of eyes on the faces of these figures. The men on board are painted black and are outlined in white, while a fourth man lies inside the hull of a canoe attached the prau and is painted in red with a white outline in contrast to the others.