Dennis Nona

This painting depicts sorcery codes communicated at night time by both male and female sorcerers.
The male sorcerer communicates and performs his sorcery while beating his warup (drum) at night time and only during his wind totem. He also consumes different types of plants and rubs them on certain parts of his body.
The female sorcerer also uses wali but that is women’s business and can’t be told by the artist. They don’t use the warup (drum) but the sound of the catfish known as buga-bug-ia is important in this story.
The imagery across the top of the painting shows a series of codes. These are actually invisible but are sounds used during communications. These relate to birdlike sounds that are used by the sorcerers for communicating. The yellow line and red line across the middle of the painting are the tracks made by sorcerers across the pitch dark night sky.