Footnotes

• PROVENANCE
  Robert Steele Gallery, Adelaide
  Private collection
  Sotheby's, Important Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, 24 July 2007, lot 78
  Private collection
  Bonhams, Aboriginal Art, Sydney, 28 May 2012, lot 159
  Private collection, Sydney
  
  RELATED WORKS
  For similar works by the artist in the collection of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, see Moon, Morning and Evening Stars, in Kathy Barnes, Kiripapurajuwi (Skills of Our Hands): Good Craftsman and Tiwi Art, Darwin, 1999, p.43 (illus.), Sun Shining on a Coral Reef, c.1970, in R. Crumlin and A. Knight, Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, Dove Publications, Melbourne, 1995, p.23, pl.4 (illus.) also in Sandra Le Brun Holmes, The Goddess and the Moon Man: The Secret Art of the Tiwi Aborigines, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1995, p.118 (illus.) as Full Moon Reflected in the Sea in the Country of Purukapali.
  
  
  The burst of energy suggested by the design in this painting is redolent with associations on a number of levels. Ostensibly, the painting depicts sunlight shimmering off the coral reefs at the eastern end of Melville Island. This is where women collect shellfish, however it is also the place where the main ancestor of the Tiwi, Purukaparli, carried the body of his baby son into the sea and drowned himself, thus bringing death to the Tiwi who had previously been immortal. The play of light on the water-covered reefs is expressed by the dashes of white, set against areas of dotting to create a scintillating effect, that in turn suggests ancestral presence in the place.
  
  Mungatopi was one of the leading Tiwi artists of his generation and is represented in most major collections of Tiwi art, including those of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the Art Gallery of South Australia, the National Museum of Australia and the Australian Museum.
  
  Wally Caruana