Lot 85

YAMBUL (Active mid-20th century) (Language group: Liyagalawumirr) Djalambu Hollow Log Ceremony and Sacred Palm 1969 natural earth pi...

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Lot 85
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YAMBUL (Active mid-20th century) (Language group: Liyagalawumirr) Djalambu Hollow Log Ceremony and Sacred Palm 1969 natural earth pi...
YAMBUL (Active mid-20th century) (Language group: Liyagalawumirr) Djalambu Hollow Log Ceremony and Sacred Palm 1969 natural earth pi...
image_0 image_1 image_2

YAMBUL (Active mid-20th century) (Language group: Liyagalawumirr) Djalambu Hollow Log Ceremony and Sacred Palm 1969 natural earth pi...

Estimate: A$6,000 - A$8,000

Starting Bid: A$6,000

(0 Bids)
June 30, 2026 6:00 PM AEST
Live Auction
Hawthorn, Australia
Description:

YAMBUL (Active mid-20th century) (Language group: Liyagalawumirr)
Djalambu Hollow Log Ceremony and Sacred Palm 1969
natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark
artist's name and title on label affixed verso
105 x 40cm

PROVENANCE:
The Artist
The Collection of Sandra Le Brun Holmes
Thence by descent

OTHER NOTES:
"The sacred palm is growing in the increase well. In the well is Wititj the python and Minala the long neck turtle. The big water goanna swims through the water lilies near the hollow log coffin which is in the well of fresh water.

The young diver duck Braila — near the eggs — is a symbol of life. The increase of the natural species.

After the mortuary ceremony life goes on. The Djalambu ceremony ensures that the new ghost will find the right path to the eternal Dreaming in the home country." (story on label affixed verso)


Across the Painted Law:
The Bark Masters of Arnhem Land and the Legacy of Sandra Le Brun Holmes

In the story of Australian art, few chapters are as profound or as misunderstood as the ceremonial bark paintings of Arnhem Land and the Tiwi Islands. These works, created by senior men of high degree, are not simply artworks in the Western sense. They are expressions of ancestral law, cosmology, and identity: visual chapters in a religious system carried in memory, ceremony, and design for thousands of years.

For decades, one of the clearest windows into this world came through the work of Sandra Le Brun Holmes, whose deep friendships with elders and ceremonial leaders shaped her life's work. Her books and films about master bark artist and leader, Yirawala and Tiwi ceremonial art remain touchstones for understanding the cultural depth behind these works, but her legacy extends far beyond.

Beginning in the 1950s, Sandra and her husband, filmmaker Cecil Holmes, travelled to remote communities at a time when many Aboriginal people were living under restrictive mission or government control. These were the early years of assimilation, a period marked by profound cultural upheaval. Yet within these constraints, Sandra became a trusted intermediary, helping elders articulate their wishes, protect their ceremonial designs, and navigate the legal and social systems of the non-Indigenous world.

She served as sound recordist and cultural liaison on some of the earliest ethnographic films made in Arnhem Land and the Tiwi Islands. These films, created in close collaboration with senior men, documented ceremonies, songs, and public ceremonial designs appropriate for recording. Her role was not observational; it was relational. She listened, translated, explained, and ensured that the elders' intentions were honoured.
The communities recognised this. They gave her a name from their mythology - the name of an ancient warrior heroine - a gesture that speaks more eloquently than any academic accolade.

During the years she lived in Darwin, Sandra created what became known as her teaching museum, the first of its kind in the Northern Territory. She transformed our family home into a place where Aboriginal people could share their knowledge, document their stories, and see their cultural heritage treated with respect and seriousness. Schoolchildren visited regularly, as did travellers, researchers, and visitors from around the world. For many Indigenous families, the museum became a source of pride: a place where their art, ceremonies, and histories were honoured at a time when such recognition was rare. It was a living space of cultural exchange, learning, and continuity.

The men Sandra worked with, Yirawala M.B.E. and many others, were not "artists" in the Western sense. They were lawmen, healers, ceremony leaders, and custodians of inherited knowledge. Their authority to paint came from initiation, lineage, and responsibility. Each design was tied to a specific clan estate, a specific story, a specific ancestral being.

Sandra often said that because Aboriginal cultures had no written language, every form of expression - painting, song, dance, story - was part of a single sacred system. She shared what the elders told her: that each painting was "a page of a sacred book." And she said that when an elder died without someone to inherit their knowledge, "it was like a library burning." This understanding shaped her life's work. She saw bark painting not as decoration, but as a vessel of law and memory, a visual theology.

Today, bark painting continues to thrive in many communities, with contemporary artists extending the tradition through both classical techniques and innovative approaches. Their work demonstrates the vitality and adaptability of this ancient art form. Yet the paintings in this collection speak to an earlier era, a time when bark painting was inseparable from ceremonial authority and inherited cultural responsibilities. They offer a direct connection to the foundations from which today's artists continue to draw strength.

Sandra dedicated her life to ensuring that this knowledge would not be lost. Through her books, films, and relationships, she preserved a body of cultural memory that might otherwise have vanished. She also assembled the only two complete ceremonial collections ever preserved in Australia: the Holmes-Tiwi Collection in the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, documenting the full Pukamani cycle of the Tiwi people, and the Yirawala Collection of the Maraian series, now held by the National Gallery of Australia. Created over many years in close collaboration with senior ceremonial leaders, these collections stand as monumental contributions to the preservation of Aboriginal ceremonial art.

The bark paintings offered here belong to that same world - a world of law, story, and ancestral presence. Their significance lies not in comparison with any other form of Indigenous art, but in the cultural truth they embody. My hope is that they continue to be seen, understood, and honoured for what they truly are: enduring expressions of one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions on earth.

Amanda Holmes

  • Provenance: The Artist
    The Collection of Sandra Le Brun Holmes
    Thence by descent
  • Dimensions: 105 x 40cm
  • Medium: natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark
  • Notes: "The sacred palm is growing in the increase well. In the well is Wititj the python and Minala the long neck turtle. The big water goanna swims through the water lilies near the hollow log coffin which is in the well of fresh water.

    The young diver duck Braila — near the eggs — is a symbol of life. The increase of the natural species.

    After the mortuary ceremony life goes on. The Djalambu ceremony ensures that the new ghost will find the right path to the eternal Dreaming in the home country." (story on label affixed verso)


    Across the Painted Law:
    The Bark Masters of Arnhem Land and the Legacy of Sandra Le Brun Holmes

    In the story of Australian art, few chapters are as profound or as misunderstood as the ceremonial bark paintings of Arnhem Land and the Tiwi Islands. These works, created by senior men of high degree, are not simply artworks in the Western sense. They are expressions of ancestral law, cosmology, and identity: visual chapters in a religious system carried in memory, ceremony, and design for thousands of years.

    For decades, one of the clearest windows into this world came through the work of Sandra Le Brun Holmes, whose deep friendships with elders and ceremonial leaders shaped her life's work. Her books and films about master bark artist and leader, Yirawala and Tiwi ceremonial art remain touchstones for understanding the cultural depth behind these works, but her legacy extends far beyond.

    Beginning in the 1950s, Sandra and her husband, filmmaker Cecil Holmes, travelled to remote communities at a time when many Aboriginal people were living under restrictive mission or government control. These were the early years of assimilation, a period marked by profound cultural upheaval. Yet within these constraints, Sandra became a trusted intermediary, helping elders articulate their wishes, protect their ceremonial designs, and navigate the legal and social systems of the non-Indigenous world.

    She served as sound recordist and cultural liaison on some of the earliest ethnographic films made in Arnhem Land and the Tiwi Islands. These films, created in close collaboration with senior men, documented ceremonies, songs, and public ceremonial designs appropriate for recording. Her role was not observational; it was relational. She listened, translated, explained, and ensured that the elders' intentions were honoured.
    The communities recognised this. They gave her a name from their mythology - the name of an ancient warrior heroine - a gesture that speaks more eloquently than any academic accolade.

    During the years she lived in Darwin, Sandra created what became known as her teaching museum, the first of its kind in the Northern Territory. She transformed our family home into a place where Aboriginal people could share their knowledge, document their stories, and see their cultural heritage treated with respect and seriousness. Schoolchildren visited regularly, as did travellers, researchers, and visitors from around the world. For many Indigenous families, the museum became a source of pride: a place where their art, ceremonies, and histories were honoured at a time when such recognition was rare. It was a living space of cultural exchange, learning, and continuity.

    The men Sandra worked with, Yirawala M.B.E. and many others, were not "artists" in the Western sense. They were lawmen, healers, ceremony leaders, and custodians of inherited knowledge. Their authority to paint came from initiation, lineage, and responsibility. Each design was tied to a specific clan estate, a specific story, a specific ancestral being.

    Sandra often said that because Aboriginal cultures had no written language, every form of expression - painting, song, dance, story - was part of a single sacred system. She shared what the elders told her: that each painting was "a page of a sacred book." And she said that when an elder died without someone to inherit their knowledge, "it was like a library burning." This understanding shaped her life's work. She saw bark painting not as decoration, but as a vessel of law and memory, a visual theology.

    Today, bark painting continues to thrive in many communities, with contemporary artists extending the tradition through both classical techniques and innovative approaches. Their work demonstrates the vitality and adaptability of this ancient art form. Yet the paintings in this collection speak to an earlier era, a time when bark painting was inseparable from ceremonial authority and inherited cultural responsibilities. They offer a direct connection to the foundations from which today's artists continue to draw strength.

    Sandra dedicated her life to ensuring that this knowledge would not be lost. Through her books, films, and relationships, she preserved a body of cultural memory that might otherwise have vanished. She also assembled the only two complete ceremonial collections ever preserved in Australia: the Holmes-Tiwi Collection in the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, documenting the full Pukamani cycle of the Tiwi people, and the Yirawala Collection of the Maraian series, now held by the National Gallery of Australia. Created over many years in close collaboration with senior ceremonial leaders, these collections stand as monumental contributions to the preservation of Aboriginal ceremonial art.

    The bark paintings offered here belong to that same world - a world of law, story, and ancestral presence. Their significance lies not in comparison with any other form of Indigenous art, but in the cultural truth they embody. My hope is that they continue to be seen, understood, and honoured for what they truly are: enduring expressions of one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions on earth.

    Amanda Holmes

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