Deutscher and Hackett

Collected by Jim Davidson, 1963
Private collection, Melbourne

Yirawala was adept at painting lively images of ancestral beings in a way that conveys their creative potential. He used brilliant patterns of dotted lines and multicoloured cross-hatching derived from ceremonies to imbue his subjects with power. This painting of two female spirit figures is distinguished by the skeletal detail of their bodies and the traditional designs woven across the torso suggesting a ceremonial attachment. By including these designs into his bark paintings, Yirawala was teaching the non-indigenous audience about the power of the ancestral subjects.