This work is a radical departure in style. It marks the time when her sister was gravely ill and there was a ferment of homeland artists in attendance at Yirrkala over a period of months in early to mid 2011. Amongst these was Gunybi Ganambarr and it is possible that the decision to incise and change to a darker palette was influenced by these factors. Included in the work is sand from her sister’s grave. It is rare if not unique to see a plain colour field bleed out to the top and bottom edge in a bark from North east Arnhem.
Trial Bay is located between Caledon Bay to the north and above the larger Blue Mud Bay on the western side of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Deep inside Trial Bay the Marrakulu clan claim ownership to land and sea though the actions and events of Ancestor Beings as they travelled into this country imbuing both land and sea. The mark of ownership is sung, danced and painted in Marrakulu ritual through the stringybark woodlands and stony country, through the freshwaters running into the Gurka’wuy River into Trial Bay. Mixing with the saltwaters through sacred mangroves and froth and bubble and out deeper into the Bay with the outgoing tide, past boulders and rocky islets the power and knowledge associated with Marrakulu Rom (law) washes back to shore. This country is associated with the Wawalak Sisters, sacred goannas, Wuyal the Sugerbag Man and the original inhabitants of Gurka’wuy since these times, the Djuwany people. The Djuwany were the first people of this country who practised the ritual according to the Creators on the beaches, who hunted the stony country and waters of both the River and Trial Bay.