Makani – queenfish

Garraparra is a coastal headland and bay area within Blue Mud Bay. It marks the spot of a sacred burial area for the Dhalwangu clan and a site where dispute was formally settled by Makarrata (a trial of ordeal by spear which settled serious grievance and sealed the peace forever). Makani the queenfish hugs the shore almost beaching itself as it attacks schools of baitfish and has actually formed the features of the coastline of Djalma Bay. Dhulurrk the sand whiting is another flat fish that bites into the beach in these songs. During the times after the 'first mornings', ancestral hunters left the shores of Garraparra in their canoe heading towards the horizon hunting for turtle. Sacred songs and dance narrate the heroic adventures of these two men as they passed sacred areas and rocks and saw ancestral totems on their way. Their hunting came to grief with the canoe capsizing and the hunters being drowned. The bodies washed back to the shores of Garraparra with the currents and the tides as the Wangupini followed with its rain and wind. Their canoe with paddle and totems – makani (queenfish), minyga (long tom) and gårun (turtle) – are all referred to in the songs and landscape. Makarrata, the ritual throwing of spears at a miscreant of Yolngu law, took place here. At Garraparra sacred trees held these barbed spears whilst not in use. Garraparra has been rendered by the wavy design for Yirritja salt water in Blue Mud Bay called mungurru. The mungurru is deep water that has many states and connects with the sacred waters coming from the land estates by currents and tidal action. Other clans of Blue Mud Bay that share similar mythology of the Yingapungapu (that is, the Madarrpa and Manggalili) also paint the deeper salt water – the mungurru. This sacred design shows the water of Djalma Bay chopped up by the blustery south easterlies of the early dry season.—Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre © Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory