These spirit figures are made by Tiwi artist, Kitty Kantilla (Kutuwalumi Purawarrumpatu), one of Australia’s most highly regarded contemporary artists. A departure from her exquisite paintings and prints, these figures are carved in ironwood, a material readily found on Bathurst and Melville islands and used extensively for wooden sculptures that have their beginnings in the famous tutini or Pukumani grave posts of the area.

As such the formal structures of Female figure and Male figure have great similarities with the Pukumani grave posts fashioned from the same ironwood. Being male and female, these figures possibly represent the two key ancestral heroes for the Tiwi people: Purrukurparli and Bima, who brought the first mortuary ceremonies to the Tiwi.