Bawáliba & Ngalyod 372-26
'My Kikka (mother), when she was alive, she would tell me these stories. I was just a little girl and she would tell us the stories in her language Gurrgoni. In the camps there were boy and girl Bawáliba, and old Bawáliba too. They loved to dance by the firelight, keeping rhythm with a stick. They had lots of hair, they were really tall and skinny, with spots on their bodies. The Bawaliba lived a long time in peace. They were the only spirits on their country and so they were never disturbed.
One day, a long time ago, the Bawáliba were out hunting and they saw a large snake - they didn’t know then but she was Ngalyod, the Rainbow Serpent. They were really scared, they had never seen that creature before. She was really beautiful - like a normal king brown snake but with a rainbow from the sky on her back. The rainbow serpent was really hungry, and she could smell the Bawáliba from a long way away. She was out looking for food. The Bawáliba tried to stop Ngalyod coming for them but she was just too quick. She snuck up behind the Bawáliba and before they could get away she ate them up. When she was really full and couldn’t eat anymore Bawáliba she changed the rest of them into stone. Still til this day, the Bawáliba stay on that same country as stones.'
– Lucy Yarawanga
About the Artist:
Bulanjdjan Lucy Yarawanga is an experienced Gurr-goni multidisciplinary artist. She works extensively through Bábbarra Women’s Centre, employing both lino and screen printing techniques, with her textile designs often referencing her ancestral stories, including various depictions of Bawáliba (Djinkarr spirit woman). Lucy’s painting style, like her personality, is bold and to the point. As well as her native Gurr-goni language – one of the least commonly spoken languages in Arnhem Land, Lucy also speaks another eight Maningrida languages.
Lucy Yarawanga was the winner of the Bark Painting Award in the 2025 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA).
'I’m an artist. I work doing bark painting and I also do designs at the Women’s Centre (Babbarra). I didn’t get these things from nowhere. I had them in my mind from when I was 8 or 9 years old. My mother was telling me that story. She passed away in 2019. I was thinking to myself, when I was working by myself, I was thinking.. to make that design, Bawáliba. And my fabric design, it goes everywhere - and my art on bark and paper.
I’m don’t think of myself as a perfect woman or artist, no! I’m just painting. Sometimes, I save money for my grandkids.'
– Lucy Yarawanga, 2024
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Bawáliba & Ngalyod 372-26
