Lena Yarinkura

Ancestors are the subject matter of Lena Yarinkura’s Yawkyawk Spirits. She is renowned for her range of these ambitious and highly distinctive wood, pandanus, paperbark, feathers, and natural pigments sculptures. ‘Yawkyawk’ is a word meaning ‘young woman’ and ‘young woman spirit being’. Yarinkura diverged from the more conventional fibre work of her contemporaries to become one of the first Arnhem Land women to work with fibre in a sculptural way. This Yawkyawk female water spirit from west Central Arnhem Land is made from ochre painted wood with a parrot feather adornment.