This etching shows the travels of the poisonous black snake in Gunamboorlayi Country, near the Canning Stock Route in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia. The stark black sinuous line is simultaneously his body and the path that he travelled during the Dreamtime. The snake started his journey in search of food (mungari). On arrival at a waterhole he scared a small red bird (possibly a Crimson Chat) that lived there. The bird remonstrated him by flapping his wings and dancing around in circles; this place is now an important corroboree site. The circles in the print are waterholes created by the snake. The full black circle is where he lives now.
(Description compiled courtesy of Waringarri Aboriginal Arts, 2006)
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