The Lorrkon or hollow-log coffin ceremony is the final ceremony in a sequence of mortuary rituals celebrated by the people of Arnhem Land. This ceremony might take place many years after the person has died, and involves the placing of the deceased’s bones into a hollow log that is decorated with painted clan designs and ceremonially placed into the ground where it slowly decays over many years.

The Lorrkon (hollow-log coffin) is made from the trunk of a termite-hollowed manbuluduk (stringybark tree, Eucalyptus tetradonta) and is decorated with totemic emblems. The western Arnhem Land version of the Lorrkon ceremony involves the singing of sacred songs to the accompaniment of karlikarli, a pair of sacred boomerangs used as rhythm instruments. During the final evening of the ceremony, dancers decorate themselves with kapok down or, today, cotton wool, and conduct much of the final segments of the ceremony in the secrecy of a restricted men’s camp. The complete ceremony may stretch over a period of two weeks, but on the last night the bones of the deceased, which have been kept in a bark container, or today wrapped in cloth and kept in a suitcase, are taken out, and are painted with red ochre and placed inside the hollow-log coffin.

At first light on the final morning of the Lorrkon ceremony, the men appear, coming out of their secret bush camp carrying the Lorrkon towards the women’s camp. The two groups call to each other using distinct ceremonial calls. The women have prepared a hole for the Lorrkon to be placed into, and when it is stood upright, women in particular kinship relationships to the deceased dance around the Lorrkon in a jumping/shuffling motion. It is then often covered with a tarpaulin and left to slowly decay. 

Seymour Wulida is a Maningrida artist whose bark painting, Buluwana at Dilebang, was a finalist at the 2016 NATSIAAs. Born to artist Jimmy Iyuna in the late-80s, his Skin Name is Bangardi, his Dreaming is Duwa and his language group Kunwinjku. Seymour's paintings are of yawk yawk (young water spirits).