The Yolngu dictionary has almost twenty separate translations for the word ‘gathering’. They divide into versions of the verb relating to gathering food and the noun to describe people coming together. baymatthun hit, beat, bash gather, get (shellfish, yams) affect birrinyguma gather together (e.g., people for death ceremony, flock of birds in a tree) biṯtharryun set a fire gather a lot of wood and get it set for a fire buma hit (hard), beat kill gather, pick, collect (wild foods, honey, shellfish) prepare (tobacco) bite (of sandfly or mosquito) shoot (gun) make (basket) affect boyan hit, kill collect, gather dhiṯthun scoop up, gather in one’s hands, have one’s hands full (of) dip (for water), get or fetch water dhurr’thurryun gather together djambayang gathering (e.g., for sports) archaic prayer djarrawurr gathering djoṉgum(a) collect, gather together, get take hold of djutthun beat, hit, make, gather galkaṉa gathering guwatharam fight, hit, kill collect, gather (e.g., yams) roll (a cigarette) ḻukthun come together, gather, collect ḻung’thun gather (together), collect, attract mutpuma gather (up), pack up (clothing), drive, herd (cattle) yarratjpunum(a) collect, gather (people), scoop up (water) yurrum’thun come together, gather There are two different approaches in these paintings. A sacred one relying on dhulang or miny’tji- the sacred clan designs. And a secular one which is purely representational. The fishtrap paintings in this show by Menga, Napurrawuy and Yimula are in the first category. Menga and Yimula paint the fishtrap at Waṉḏawuy which joins the Djapu clan of the Dhuwa moiety together whilst Napurrawuy is painting the Buyku ceremony area of the Yirritja moiety from Gäṉgan. These particular epic song cycles are meta. The patterns encode songs of people gathering together to gather fish as they conduct a ceremony memorialising the ancestors gathering together to sing of gathering fish etc. An infinitely repeating collective activity of collecting. The bark paintings of Yalamakany and Muluymuluy are different. They are figurative and literal. In Yolngu life there is no state of being alone. There is the choice of being with one person, a few people or many – but not one to be in solitude. And so the ancient practices of feeding oneself from what can be gathered is always done in company. Muluymuluy’s vessels are made to contain what has been gathered and metaphorically show the weave that binds the people together in kinship. One of Yalmakany’s paintings of women gathering ganguri (yams) shows thirteen women. This is not just the ancestral past but also the current contemporary reality. This is the norm. The troopy loads up and then disgorges up to twenty people and they head off in different directions depending on taste and talent. Some for oysters, some to spear fish, some to gather firewood or pandanus, some to go through the mangroves to get crabs. And in this case a group of women following the tiny thread of vine which leads underground to the rich tuber. But some sit by the fire and tend it and cook and chat and sleep and mind kids. At the end of the day all will reconvene to eat the yams, stingray pate, mudcrabs, smoked oysters, magpie goose, cow, wallaby, brolga, tuna or crayfish and drink cups of tea, eat the damper cooked on the coals with lashings of bush honey or condensed milk. These are the precious times of family contentment and happy joking and teasing. Satisfied and securely comfortable in company. — Will Stubbs, Coordinator, Buku Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre (Detail) Yalmakany Marawili, Gulun Ŋathamirri, 2023, natural ochres on stringybark, 133 x 67 cm (#2843-23).