Jaratinga (Storms, Clouds and rains)

Mickey Wilson’s unique use of fine jilamara (body paint design) in his words are: `all about the clouds we get up here in Tiyari (build-up) and wet season.’ On the Tiwis the weather not only indicates the change of seasons, but also indicates times to hold ceremonies such as the Kurlama (coming-of-age ceremony) that occurs at the end of the wet season when a ring appears around japarra (the moon). Indictaors of seasonal change can also mark the coming of different hunting seasons, like the coming of large wet season clouds over the wetlands of Melville Island during the build-up months signals the start of Nyarringari (Magpie Goose) hunting. Wilson’s combinations of marlipinyini (lines) and pwanga (dots) in ochre design outline the changing combinations of clouds and rain that make up the various seasons of the tropical Tiwi Islands.