As one of the most revered women in her community, Naminapu Maymuru-White, of the Maŋgalili clan, using the miny’tji (sacred clan design) for the sandscapes of Djarrakpi, Maymuru-White’s larrakitj tell the sacred stories of her clan: that all souls that have ever lived, and will ever live, already exist side by side simultaneously in the stars, that they are birthed by water and return to the water of the sky at death. Her work sits at the heart of the exhibition, guiding the viewers on a sensory journey through sacred stories and collective knowledge, whilst inviting reflection on one’s connection to the earth and home.

Maymuru-White is one of the first Yolŋu women to be taught to paint miny’tji that capture our connection to the Milky Way. She has presented works at major public institutions andin 2024 will exhibit in the Arsenale at the 60th Venice Biennale.

Dhopiya Yunupiŋu's works draw upon the shared histories between her the Yolŋu people and Maccassan traders, Indonesian fisherman, with whom her ancestors traded trepang (sea cucumber) - a connection which predates European contact with Indigenous Australians. Painted with the fine lines of a single brush on bark, paper and larrakitji (memorial poles), the colours of these works come from the land on which they are made, connecting them to an ancient line of storytelling. Intricate lines intertwine to resemble the threads of cloth traded between the Maccassans and Yolŋu people in Arnhem Land.

Barayuwa Munuŋgurr etches onto steel his own Djapu designs as well as the Munyuku clan designs of his mother Bengitj’s homeland, Yarrinya. These works recall an ancestral story that took place on the Yarrinya saltwater estate, in which Munyuku spirit men hunt their own brother, a whale called Mirinyuŋu.

Munuŋgurr was a key early adopter of the Found movement in contemporary Indigenous art practice, initiated by Gunybi Ganambarr. This movement is defined by the reclamation of abandoned and weathered metal sheets often used for road signs. The practice acknowledges the human-made changes to the material culture of the land and extends traditional designs into a contemporary practice.

Marrnyula Munuŋgurr belongs to a cohort of extraordinary female artists working at Yirrkala whose skills in painting have been passed through generations from their fathers and their father’s fathers. Her bark paintings tell a story of the Wäṉḏawuy river: movements and colours of the waterway, relationships between its inhibitors with the rest of the world. The life brought to Wäṉḏawuy by water in its many forms–rain, rivers, billabongs–is a potent symbol in Marrnyula Munuŋgurr’s storytelling.

Marrnyla grew up learning from her father Djutjadjutja, who was the winner of the 1997 Best Bark Painting Prize National Aboriginal and Islander Art Award. In 2020 she won the same award.