Ron Yunkaporta’s painted poles stand upright like a group of oddly-patterned trees abruptly cut short, their trunks painted a reddish color broken by large white spots. The simplicity of forms and painted designs belies the complexity of their cultural meaning and status, for these are ‘thuuth thaa’-munth’, ritual Law Poles used in mortuary ceremonies and accompanied by the performance of associated songs and dance movements. During the ceremony the poles ensure that the spirit of the deceased is present; afterwards, they are hidden away until next they are needed.

Amongst the Wik people of Aurukun, Yunkaporta is a custodian of customary law: the knowledge, traditions and cultural practices that shape Aboriginal spiritual and legal systems. As principal Song Man for the Apelech ceremonial group, he holds rights and responsibility for the making of the Apelech Law Poles, a role that was handed down from his father. He in turn is passing this knowledge on to his three daughters, ensuring the continuity of age-old cultural knowledge and practices.

The colors and patterns painted on the poles are resonant with meaning of timeless origin. The pattern is representative of his clan, the Apelech. Apelech refers to the areas of clear water that can be seen particularly in the dry season when the weather is calm and the silt has settled, leaving the shallow coastal waters clear and bright — a good time for spear-fishing. The red ochre represents the sunset, the white spots the bubbles of foam that are created as the tide washes on the shoreline. The pattern evokes the beauty of the western-facing coastline around Aurukun, Cape York, but it is in fact a representation of the artist’s association with the Apelech clan. While participating in ceremonies, these patterns are painted on Yunkaporta’s body and those of other Apelech clan members as visual assertions of their clan identity. Similarly, members of other clans paint different designs that represent their clans and country and these can be seen in the work of other Wik and Kugu sculptors such as Joe Ngallametta and Arthur Pambegan Jr..

The sea waters are important to Yunkaporta, as they are to all Saltwater people, the Indigenous peoples who live around Australia's northern coastline. They are important not just as a source of food — fish, rays and sharks — but as part of traditional country for which the various clans have specific ownership rights and responsibilities. Indigenous Australians have a strong attachment to country, which is patterned with Dreaming tracks marking the pathways of ancestral beings whose actions created the features of the landscape and whose exploits are recounted in Dreaming stories. These tracks link traditional food gathering sites, water holes, and sacred sites on land as well as in the coastal waters. For Saltwater people, the waters are ‘Sea Country’ and must be cared for just as the land is cared for.

Yunkaporta began creating sculptures for exhibition around 1995 and several of his Law Poles have been presented in exhibitions in Australia as well as being acquired by the Aboriginal Art Museum in Utrecht, in the Netherlands. These vary only slightly, with the occasional addition of two or three bands of string, wrapped around the top, from which white ibis feathers protrude. His other works include wood carvings of totemic animals such as sharks and dugong, a large marine mammal found in the shallow coastal waters of northern Australia, and an ancestral figure, Father Apelech. All are linked to the Saltwater Country for which he has custodial responsibilities and are painted as the poles are, with a red ground and white spots.

The presence of these ceremonial poles in art museums reflects a recent change in perceptions by both viewers and artists. Wider acceptance and appreciation of Aboriginal aesthetics have transformed these objects from ethnographic artifacts to modern art works. While Aboriginal cultural practices and artifacts have been of interest to anthropologists and museum collectors since the late nineteenth century, they have only gained global recognition as art since the 1970s when Western Desert acrylic paintings began to be produced commercially. These are probably the most widely recognized form of Indigenous Australian art, their colorful, symbolic designs depicting Dreaming stories and events using motifs adapted from ceremonial ground and body paintings. Similarly, in Arnhem Land, artists produce intricately painted bark paintings and hollow log mortuary poles whose surfaces are covered with finely painted cross-hatching, diamonds and other patterns that represent the clans, waters, creatures and ancestral beings of the saltwater regions of the Northern Territory. These have attracted critical acclaim as well as a number of national Indigenous art awards, and are sought after by private art collectors and galleries. However, it is only in the past decade or so that indigenous art works from northern Queensland – Lockhart River, Mornington Island, Bentinck Island, Aurukun – have gained attention in the art world.

Despite their new role, the poles continue to hold sacred power. When he sends Law Poles to galleries in distant locations, Yunkaporta records stories and songs to accompany them. This provides protection for those who view and handle them, who might otherwise become sick, and also gives visitors some sense of context and meaning.

While the production and display of Law Poles continues an age-old practice, the commodification of ritual sculptures, bark paintings and Western Desert acrylic paintings can be seen as a part of an on-going strategy by Indigenous artists to use Aboriginal art to reach out to non-Indigenous audiences and draw attention to Aboriginal cultural and political interests. In producing these works, artists are asserting their cultural identity, status and custodial responsibilities through the display of cultural artifacts and the symbolic meanings conveyed in the patterns. When viewed by non-Indigenous audiences, much of this meaning may be ‘hidden in plain view’ due to the unfamiliarity of the iconography and symbolism. Nevertheless, the presence of Indigenous art works in western museums and art galleries, and their re-classification as works of art, is evidence of the capacity of Aboriginal artists to both maintain and innovate cultural practices as part of living traditions, and indicative of the power of Indigenous visual culture to promote Indigeneity in the global arena.

Parts of this essay are drawn from a conversation with Ron Yunkaporta, 21 January 2010. I would like to thank Ron and the staff of Wik and Kugu Art Centre in Aurukun for their assistance in facilitating our discussion.

Moira G. Simpson is a Senior Lecturer in Arts Education at the University of South Australia. She has written extensively about museums, Indigenous cultural politics, and repatriation. Her publications include Making Representations: Museums in the Post-Colonial Era (Routledge: 1996 / 2001) and Museums and Repatriation (Museums Association: 1997).