DAWIDI 2020.282

Neville Dawidi Birritjama painted Wagilag sisters when he was the senior ritual leader in his community for the creation story of the two sisters of the title. This important narrative has wide-ranging significance for the Dhuwa moiety among the Yolngu of central and eastern Arnhem Land.

The central feature of Birritjama’s painting is Wititj (the olive python), depicted here as emerging from its waterhole to surround and swallow the Wagilag sisters and their children. Environmental transgressions by the sisters angered Wititj, who rose into the sky, causing thunder and lightning, and bringing the destructive rains of the first monsoon. The painting also includes the monsoonal rain clouds, stars, creatures hunted by the sisters for food, the sand palm at the site emerging from the semi-circular waterhole, dots of rain, and the footprints of the sisters as they danced and sang in an effort to prevent Wititj from attacking them.