ABSTRACT
The chapter focuses on Djambawa Marawili's painting of the journey of Bäru, the Ancestral Crocodile across the land and seascape of Yolŋu country in north east Arnhem Land. Place names form a mnemonic grid which is the basis for a generative system of knowledge, simultaneously marking the relationships between the people who are named after the places. As a coherent system, its mnemonic power and effectiveness rest primarily in the strength of connections between places that are tied together through narrative and song. The names remain in place as a recursive reference point, as something permanent, unmoving in time or space.
