D Lan Galleries is honoured to present The Ancestral Hearth, the first international solo exhibition by Yolŋu artist Rerrkirrwaŋa Munungurr. The exhibition brings together a collection of bark paintings that embody the ancestral presence of gurtha – fire and the interconnected relationships between Madarrpa and Gumatj Country in Northeast Arnhem Land.

As djungayi – custodian, Rerrkirrwaŋa paints sacred Gumatj miny’tji – clan designs, carrying knowledge across generations. Her distinctive diamond patterns evoke the tongues of ancestral fire, while fine white marks recall the sparks that rise as the fire burns down.

Rendered with extraordinary precision using natural ochres and marwat – fine brushes made from human hair, Rerrkirrwaŋa’s shimmering fields of pattern speak from an enduring Yolŋu knowledge system, linking Country, kinship and ancestral narrative.

Rerrkirrwaŋa Munuŋgurr is a distinguished Djapu artist from Waṉḏawuy, belonging to the Dhuwa moiety. The youngest daughter of the late senior leader and painter Djutjadjutja, she absorbed her father’s discipline and precision from an early age, often completing his works before establishing her own authority to paint. Emerging from one of northeast Arnhem Land’s most accomplished artistic families, including her sister Marrnyula and her mother Noŋgirrŋa Marawili, she has developed a practice defined by extraordinary refinement and technical control. Rerrkirrwaŋa is renowned for her meticulous marwat, the human-hair brush she fashions herself, allowing her to produce some of the finest linework seen in contemporary Yolŋu art. Her paintings, grounded in the sacred designs of the Gumatj clan through her husband Yalpi Yunupiŋu, explore the ancestral power of Gurtha (fire) through shimmering diamond motifs. Her work has been recognised nationally and internationally, including winning the Bark Painting Award at the 2009 Telstra NATSIAA and exhibiting at Chiaroscuro Gallery in Santa Fe.