Croc! Lore and law accessibility tourCroc! Lore and law accessibility tour 

Croc! Lost Giants to Living Legends, Lore and law audio description and transcript includes:

• Lore and law
• Bark paintings

Part 2 includes:

• Painting by Mick Gubargu
• Blue Mud Bay Sea Rights flag
• Artist talk of Blue Mud Bay Sea Rights flag

You are moving into a new section. A panel on the wall summarises this section with the following text:

LORE AND LAW

From land rights to sea rights.

The Yolŋu Saltwater bark paintings are artworks and powerful legal documents, strategically educating outsiders about their profound connection to Sea Country.

Their creation was prompted by recreational fishermen desecrating the sacred home of Bäru, the ancestral crocodile. This led Yolŋu clans from Arnhem Land's Blue Mud Bay to launch a landmark native title case in the Federal Court, seeking recognition of their inherent sea rights under Australian law.

A historic decision ultimately granted Traditional Owners control over access to coastal waters between the low and high tidemarks across 80% of the Northern Territory's coastline.

(BARK PAINTINGS)

DESCRIPTION OF DISPLAY:

This section of the exhibition features eight bark paintings, six from the Australian National Maritime Museum’s collection and two from the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory’s collection. These bark paintings, and the stories they tell, are living cultural heritage.

Each painting is displayed in its own rectangular case with a glass top. The display cases vary in height - some at hip height, others as low as knee height. The cases are arranged together in a T-shape.

The paintings in this section are composed of natural pigments - in white, mustard-yellow, reddish-brown ochre, and black. The pigments are painted on smooth, rectangular, flattened pieces of bark - the largest around 1.5 metres long and 30 cm wide, the smallest the size of a pocket notebook.

(PAINTING BY MICK GUBARGU)

One of the bark paintings will be described in detail, as it corresponds to a scaled-down, tactile reproduction, which is mounted on the wall next to the label.

This painting is titled “The crocodile ancestor come to Maragalidban in the Dreamtime and put the crocodile spirit children there” and it was painted by Mick Gubargu, a Kunwinjku artist, in 1970.

This painting is about 80 centimetres long and 60 centimetres wide. It features four crocodiles arranged side-by-side on a dark maroon background. Three crocs have their heads facing to the right, but the fourth croc has its head turned to the left, overlapping the head of the third croc. The linework used to illustrate the crocodiles is very detailed and intricate. The crocs’ heads, arms, legs, claws and spines are white and covered with small black dots. The pointed teeth are clearly drawn in their gaping mouths. The body and tails of the four crocs are illustrated with cross-hatched chevrons, in alternating colours: white, black, ochre and yellow. The tail of the left-most croc curves to the right, overlapping the left-curving tails of the other three crocs.

An object label reads:

Mick grew up surrounded by the crocodile-filled waters of the Liverpool River and Maragalidban Creek.

This painting’s title describes a key moment during the sacred era of creation, when the great ancestral crocodile journeyed across the land. He shaped important sites, established foundational law, brought fire, and left spirit-crocodiles at places like Maragalidban. These stories are a living heritage.

(BLUE MUD BAY SEA RIGHTS FLAG)

DESCRIPTION OF DISPLAY:

Displayed on the wall, above the cabinets housing the bark paintings, is a replica of the Blue Mud Bay Sea Rights Flag from the Australian National Maritime Museum’s collection. The rectangular flag is about 1 metre long and 70 cm wide. The flag is divided evenly in half by a narrow black horizontal line - representing the landowners. Above the line, the flag is white - representing the ancestral cloud Wanupini. Below the line, the flag is bright-blue - representing saltwater. At the very centre of the flag is a yellow circle (much like the yellow circle at the centre of the Aboriginal Flag) and it represents the beach sand, and this yellow circle is encircled by a narrow border of red - representing the suffering and blood of the people.

A text panel gives context for the display. It reads:

BLUE MUD BAY SEA RIGHTS FLAG

Designed by Donald Nuwandjali Marawili, [a] Madarrpa clan artist, Yilpara (Baniyala) community, East Arnhem Land.

It came from the landmark 2008 High Court decision that recognised Indigenous sea rights in the Northern Territory.

The design is rich in symbolism, with its colours speaking to the journey for recognition and decades-long history of Yolŋu people using art to protest against outsiders taking their land, resources and knowledge.

(Audio of Blue Mud Bay flag)

DESCRIPTION OF DISPLAY:

If you sit on the bench next to the bark paintings and pick up the earphone, you can listen to Donald Nuwandjali Marawili talk about the flag.