Dhuwarrwarr Marika is one of the daughters of the esteemed artist Mawalan Marika (1908–67) and the first woman in eastern Arnhem Land to paint on bark. She remains compelled to paint the stories related to her by her father and, though she works in her own distinctive style, her father’s influence is evident; Mawalan depicted the same subject in the historic Yirrkala composite bark Yalangbara c.1960 in the QAGOMA Collection. 
Yalangbara explores an aspect of the most important theme for Dhuwa moiety Yolngu, the journey of the Djang’kawu sisters, the creator ancestors who followed the morning star from Burralku (the mythical island of ancestral dead), rowing their canoes across the sea using digging sticks as paddles. They carried with them nganmirra (woven mats) and bathi (conical bags); transformed when they reached land into sacred objects through ritual singing and dancing.
The painting embodies the essence of Yalangbara, the coastal site in northeast Arnhem Land where the sisters arrived at sunrise in an area known as Miwatj, the first part of the Top End of Australia to see the morning sun. Marika’s abstract markings reflect the Djang’kawu’s vision of the sun’s rays shining on the sea water and the patterning resulting from salt water drying off on their skin. Exhausted after their long journey they climbed the sand dunes to rest, observing from their vantage point the sun illuminating certain birds that they sang and named: buwata (bustard); lindirritj (rainbow lorikeet) and ngatili (black cockatoo).  
At Yalangbara the Djang’kawu plunged their sacred staffs (mawalan) into the sand to make Milngurr, the first of a series of freshwater sacred springs. With the rising sun, two djanda (goannas) drink from Milŋurr and ngatili hears the crashing of the waves and sees the white foam created by the meeting of fresh and salt water. When the sisters laid their mawalan down they took root and became the sacred djuta tree from which they hung their ceremonial bathi. Mangirrikirri (fruit bats) also hung from its branches, haloed by the rising sun and gowudalbudal (male shining flycatcher) rested there, singing the tide coming in and going out. 
The Djang’kawu sisters gave birth to all the Rirratjingu clans at Yalangbara, and continued their journey across Arnhem Land, creating a landscape of springs and rocks, and defining clan estates, languages, sacred law and ceremony for all Dhuwa moiety people. Their white hair (djawulu) is symbolic of sacred wisdom and is a distinctive feature common to Rirratjingu women. 
Essay prepared by Diane Moon, Curator, Indigenous Fibre Art, July 2019.