Rare 1965 Aboriginal Bark Painting — Manawila, Milingimbi | Hollow Log Mortuary Ceremony with Diver Birds & Catfish

Artist: Manawila (Gupapuynga Clan, son of Djawa),

Milingimbi Island, Arnhem Land

Collected: 1965

Medium: Natural earth pigments on Eucalyptus bark

Size: 76 cm × 45 cm (approx. 30" × 18")

Condition: Professionally stabilised — paint secured, no active flaking. Minor historic pigment loss visible in photographs. Ready to hang.

This exceptional bark painting, collected in 1965 from Milingimbi Island in Central Arnhem Land, carries one of the most profound and poetic stories in Yolngu spiritual life — the journey of the soul to the Dreamtime.

At the heart of the composition is a Djalumbu — a hollow log bone container, the sacred vessel used in the final stage of Arnhem Land mortuary ceremony. Yolngu believe that the small apertures towards the top of such containers provide the soul of the deceased with a viewing hole to look through and survey the land. Here, two eyes — painted at the top of the log — gaze outward, a tender and haunting detail unique to this work.

Surrounding the vessel are diver birds (cormorants), and their presence is no accident. In a ceremony close to the beginning of time, a spirit being called Murayana made the first hollow log and also made the Diver Duck (cormorant) totemic sculpture. When the ceremony finished, the people painted their bodies with a catfish design, and threw the log into the sacred waterhole where it sank into the deepest part. The catfish in the waterhole embodies the soul of the deceased — and the diver bird, plunging into the water, catches the catfish and carries the soul upward to the Dreamtime. Life, death, and spiritual release rendered in earth pigment on bark.

The purpose of the hollow log ceremony is to allow the spirit of the deceased to embark on the final journey beyond earthly existence. This painting does not merely depict that ceremony — it is a record of it, painted by an artist from the very community and clan for whom these ceremonies held living meaning.

About the Artist & Place

Manawila is the son of Djawa, of the Gupapuynga Tribe of the Milingimbi region of Arnhem Land. Djawa was one of the most important tribal leaders in Arnhem Land, passing down sacred myths to his son. Manawila also inherited totems and ceremonial knowledge through his mother's line — a rich dual inheritance that informed his paintings deeply. 

Milingimbi in the 1950s and 1960s was a remarkable moment in the history of Aboriginal art. Artists worked alongside one another, their individual approaches and shared visual language resulting in a distinctive style of painting of a quality and scale never before seen. A 1965 collection date places this work squarely within that golden era.

Condition & Display

The painting is flat and straight — ready to hang directly on the wall without framing. Minor pigment loss is visible in the photographs and consistent with age and the nature of natural earth pigments on bark. The paintwork has been professionally stabilised; there is no active flaking. What you see is what it will remain.

Please view the photos carefully as they make up an important part of the description