Ngalyod, 2001 by Paul Namarinjmak Nabulumo 49x17cm

This bark painting by artist Paul Namarinjmak Nabulumo is one of the iconic imagery handed down to Paul from his father Mick Kubarkku, and depicts Ngalyod (the Rainbow Serpent) at the ancestral sites of dirdbim and kubumi djang.

Dirdbim literally means ‘image of the moon’. This site is a large unusually round hole in a sandstone residual on the plain not far from the Mann River. The large hole is said to be the full moon created by Ngalyod who pierced the rock in times of the ‘Dreaming’ and left the shape of the full moon.

Kubumi is a sacred site on the Mann River consisting of a series of deep waterholes connected by underground tunnels. Ngalyod pierced the rock to create these waterholes and now lives in the rocky riverbed.