This piece is painted in the miny’tji (sacred clan design) of the Dhalwaŋu clan which is one of the eight or so clans belonging to the Yirritja moiety (half) in North East Arnhem land. The sacred diamond design for the Dhalwaŋu clan reflects the patterning of the water streaming from the body of Ancestral Creator Being Barama as he emerged from these waters at Gäṉgaṉ, with weed hanging from his arms.

Today appropriately senior ritual participants wear sacred feathered strings from armbands, their chest painted with the Dhalwaŋu design of freshwater. These totemic ancestors of the Dhalwaŋu clan are all associated with this site at Gäṉgaṉ from which all Yirritja creation began. They are seen as embodiments of the disciples or companions of Barama and himself. Black and white dots also representing the wake of the swimming tortoise.

The manifestation of Barama is the long neck tortoise and chief totem for the Dhalwaŋu - Minhala. His disciple is Dhakawa - freshwater crayfish. Another Dhalwaŋu totem is Garkman (frog). It was in a period called Wangarr, the world creation drives of the first mornings, when the Ancestral Beings came to country to give lore and title for the land and its people. The Yolŋu world is based on a duality, of two moieties of equal status that integrate through a complex system of kinship. Clan groups in this area known as Miwatj country belong to either the Yirritja or Dhuwa moieties. Barama came to Gäṉgaṉ from the saltwater country of Blue Mud Bay to emerge from the waterhole named Gulutji with the intention of establishing his law amongst the people there of that time.