Yawk Yawk - Owen Yalandja

Owen Yalandja’s bronze Yawk Yawk embodies the graceful, fluid spirit of the female water beings that inhabit the rock pools and billabongs of his ancestral Country in Western Arnhem Land. Known as Yawk Yawk or Ngalkunburriyaymi, these beings are part mermaid, part woman—ancestral spirits tied to sacred freshwater sites, and deeply significant in the cosmology of Kuninjku-speaking peoples.
Traditionally depicted in bark painting and carved wood, Yalandja’s translation of this spiritual figure into bronze marks a powerful convergence of cultural continuity and contemporary innovation. The sleek form of the figure—elongated, sinuous, and elegant—mirrors the movement of water itself. Her long hair, flowing like tendrils of green algae, connects her to the living ecosystems of springs, creeks and monsoon-fed pools.
Yawk Yawk spirits are guardians of powerful djang (Dreaming) sites. They are associated with conception and transformation—moving between land and water, physical and spiritual realms. It is said they sometimes leave their watery homes to walk across Country at night, luminous and shimmering, glimpsed only by those who know where to look.
In this sculpture, Yalandja honours the knowledge passed down from his father, Crusoe Kurddal, and generations before him. But he also pushes the form into new terrain, forging a path where ancient stories can be told through contemporary material.