Ganalbingu Tribe Gurrumba Gurrumba Clan Sacred Swamp Reeds Mud/Stone Pigment on Bark 44"x 36" Artist: Milpurrurru 1 of 1 click here for the main page click here for the next artist click on image to enlarge for detail (large file size)

Sacred Swamp Reeds
The Ganalbingu people, who live beside the Arafura Swamp near Ramingining, have water as their chief totem, or "dreaming".

These swamps were created by Ancestral Beings who walked the earth in the beginning of time, giving law and ceremony to Aborigines, creating sacred sites and distributing sacred symbols which gave power and status to the various clan groups.

The swamps are home to saltwater crocodiles which swim up from the sea at breeding times to make their nests among he reeds. Milpurrurru, who is ceremonial leader to the tribe and owner of the swamps and surrounding land, guards the area very closely, only allowing restricted gathering of goose and crocodile eggs.

The reeds are so thick that special bark canoes with sharp pointed ends are used to force their way through. Men construct bark shelters with high platforms of board on which they sleep so that crocodiles will not attack them.

Milpurrurru and his equally famous sister, Dorothy Djukulul, belong to the Gurrumba Gurrumba clan of the Ganalbingu tribe. Gurrumba Gurrumba means "flock of magpie geese", and so they are known as the magpie goosepeople. Both the geese and the swamp reeds ("wurramani") were made sacred by the Ancestral Beings.