Baraltja is the residence of Burrut'tji (also known as Mundukul) the lightning serpent. It is an area of flood plains that drain into northern Blue Mud Bay. It is on country belonging to the Madarrpa and denotes an area of special qualities pertaining to fertility and the mixing of waters. From Madarrpa (and Dhalwanu clan) land freshwater spreads onto the Baraltja flood plains with the onset of the Wet. A tidal creek into the Bay flows with the freshwater flushing the brackish mix into the sea over an ever shifting sandbar (the snake manifest).

This flushing of freshwater excites Burrut'tji to stand on its tail spitting lightning in the directions from where the weather comes from. Wanupini or thunderheads are seen flickering lightning on the horizon in the deep water named Munurru connecting with Madarrpa ancestors of the Dhiliyalyal tribe who lived at Boway Nipanwuy further down the coast. This ancestral kinship tie is linked over sea country as well as the land and a cycle of events that also connect by lightning wind and rain has it so. The cloud is sung as feminity and fecundity, pregnant with life-giving freshwater.

So as a harpoon travels or does lightning the estates are connected spiritually in a multi directional way - both to and from, a cyclic phenomenon which is chronicled in the sacred songs that narrate these Ancestral actions over land, through the sea and ether. It is worth noting that Yolnu 'science' portrays this energy burst as coming up from the land which is now recognised by Western science as the precursor to download lightning 'strikes'.

The open ended strings of diamonds marks the classic miny'tji of the saltwater estate of Yathikpa. Here Baru the ancestral crocodile, carrying and being burnt by the Ancestral fire crossed the beach from Garranali (crocodile's nest) and entered the saltwater. Baru decided after being soothed of his burns that he would stay in these waters. His sacred powers in line with that of the fire imbues the water there today.

Later from the same beach Ancestral Hunters on seeing Dugong took their hunting harpoon and canoe out to the sea of the Yathikpa in pursuit. The hunters were lured too close to a dangerous rock by the dugong seeking shelter. The dugong here feed on the Gamata, a sea grass that is a manifestation of flames on the sea bed. Wavy ribbons of seagrass sway in the sunlit water. Fire at this sacred site boiled the water capsizing the canoe. This is sometimes called an ancestral tide and it is speculated that this is the oral tradition of an ancient tsunami which initiated death and founds existing mortuary ceremonies in the region like the sacred sand sculpture Yinapunapu which is a canoe shaped space which holds the contaminaton of decay at bay. The sacred harpoon changed into Dhakandjali the hollow log coffin/memorial pole that floats on the seas of Yathikapa and further afield within Blue Mud Bay, its directions connecting other Yirritja clans (Mangalili and Dhalwanu) through association of kin across the Bay in the same way that the electrical connection between their relative lightning serpents.

These events are sung today at Yirritja ceremony and the 'deep' names of Yathikpa intoned by Djerrakay, (ritual specialists).