YUNUPINGU, Gulumbu

… I have this knowledge that my father told me, about the seven sisters and about the sky … I had this knowledge that these stars are in the sky, and this came to me about the universe.

Then I had this dream … one night; we were sleeping outside, my sisters and me, and we were looking up in the sky, and we saw a beautiful sky … it was bright and the sky was blue and light stars everywhere.

[When] I woke up … in the morning I had this vision and [was] told: ‘do this’. Maybe hiding somewhere at the back of my mind [was] knowledge my father had. Then I got
these rocks and paints and brushes and hairbrush and then I did this first one … little piece of bark … and then I tried these stars.

Yunupingu, Yirrkala, March 2007.