14 AM 801/03
Roy Hunter Wiggan Ilma - Smoke Signal At Mankorra 2003
Acrylic on plywood, wool and wool fibre 860 x 1900mm $4000
When there's someone in trouble of any sort whether its drift by tide or sickness that's where the smoke signal will
take place. From August to December that's where there is the strong tide that carries you away - that's where the
fire takes place in Mankorra. The smoke signal is used to notify the surrounding people that something is
happening. That's where this special signal happened when Roy's father Henry Wiggan was taken by Ngardini -
the heavy cloud, rain, strong wind. Nobody could see him - he drifted out with the biyal biyal - raft made from soft
mangrove wood. Even he did not know where he was. When the rain passed he looked about and there was no
land. The storm was finishing and there was no land - nothing. The tide eventually brought him back because he
was a man of spiritual doctrine.