Deutscher and Hackett

Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre, Yirrkala, Northern Territory
Private collection, Melbourne

This work is accompanied by a copy of a certificate of authenticity from Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art Centre which states in part:

‘The culmination for much of the country of north east Arnhem Land towards the end of the dry season is to be cleansed by raking bushfires. The floors of the open woodlands are laid black and bare and the more intense fires scorch the the trees foliage dry to ochre hues. When the fire has long past the dry breezes loose the leaves from above to carpet, as if to hide the new and immediate growth. Visibility into these areas after the fires lengthens dramatically - the bush and high grasses have disappeared with the flames.

Many of the larger trees in these woodlands have been around long enough to host large communities of termites and white ants. These wood eaters perform on the larger trees as they do on the smaller ones - hollow them out as giant Yidaki (digeridoo).’