Yolkala Gumurrlili? with Whom Towards the Chest? A Relational Portrait of Yolŋu Social Organisation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Much has been written about Yolŋu social organisation since Lloyd Warner’s early ethnography (1937). Debates within this literature have predominantly focused on the relative independence of bäpurru groups, a significant social unit within Yolŋu society, and whether these can accurately be described as ‘corporate descent groups’. To develop a fresh perspective on Yolŋu social organisation, this paper presents an exploration of five drawings by Dhambiŋ Burarrwaŋa and her waku (daughters, sister’s daughters), a novel methodology which has allowed us to recast well-known anthropological tropes within a setting of relational growth and cross-cultural communication. Rather than outlining a structural model, themes of raki’ (strings), luku (foot, footprint, anchor, root of a tree), gamunuŋgu (white clay), and lirrwi (ashes, shade) are explored in detail, as they reveal multiple layers of complexity and connection within otherwise abstract notions like ‘clan’. The drawings and accompanying exegesis situate Yolngu identity within living social connections. What emerges is a relational portrait that embeds the ‘clan debate’ within those relationships that make understanding possible in the first place.