My painting is the story of the frill neck lizard dance called Wanam. The wanam dance tells the story of how a young man ate the bulb of the mayi kitcharre plant. This plant is toxic without preparing it correctly but blue tongue and frill neck lizards eat the tuber and flower. After consuming the toxic plant the young man went back to camp and started thrashing about in the dirt, his mouth became very itchy and he transformed into a frill neck lizard in front of everyone. When Wanam is performed the dancers are imitating the movements of frill neck lizard on the day he ate mayi kitcahrre. This dance can be performed in public and it makes people laugh.
The frill neck lizard is an important totem for Thaayorre, Kugu and Wik people. Totems identify which clan group we belong to. When I painted this I was singing the song line for this ritual.