20 February, 2006

Djambawa Marawili


DJAMBAWA MARAWILI is a leader of the Madarrpa clan and an activist and administrator on the interface between non-Aboriginal people and the Yolngu people of North East Arnhem Land. Djambawa’s art is closely related to his role as a leader and he draws on the sacred foundation of his people to represent the power of Yolngu and to educate others in the justice of his people’s struggle for recognition. Living at Yilpara, three hours from Yirrkala, he is immersed in the country he paints and carves. His work is represented in most major Australian collections, and in several overseas collections. In 1996 he won the prestigious National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award Best Bark Painting Prize.

Djambawa is chairman of the Association of Northern, Kimberley and Arnhem Aboriginal Artists (ANKAAA) and was recently appointed to the Australia Council's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board. He is represented by Buku Larrnggay Arts, Yirrkala, and Annandale Galleries, Sydney.

more at ANU

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The Buku-
Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre and Museum is in Yirrkala, a small Aboriginal community on the north-eastern tip of the Top End of the Northern Territory, approximately 700kms East of Darwin. We service approximately twenty five homeland centres in the radius of 250km (Map). This part of Australia is very special. The coastline and hinterland are largely unspoilt and still managed by the traditional owners, the Yolngu (Aboriginal people of the region between Numbulwar and Maningrida). They have fought all attempts by non-Aboriginal people to dispossess them.



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