Selected biographical notes written by Genevieve O’Callaghan
As these biographical notes present only a selection of events, not all exhibitions, awards and peer artists are mentioned. For a comprehensive timeline and list of collections, see John Mawurndjul’s biography, along with other Maningrida Arts & Culture (MAC) artists’ biographies, at the MAC website. Only direct quotes are referenced; all other information is drawn from sources listed in the bibliography. Artists’ language groups and biographical information are included after the initial mention of their name. An explanation on the Kuninjku dialect and Bininj Kunwok dialect chain is provided in this website’s Glossary. Past variations on the spelling of places and artists’ names are included in early lecture and exhibition titles.
At Kubukkan near Marrkolidjban in Arnhem Land, John Mawurndjul is born to parents Anchor Kulunba (circa 1920–1996) and Mary Wurrdjedje (circa 1927–2017).1 Both are Kuninjku dialect speakers, Kulunba of the Kurulk clan and Wurrdjedje of the Darnkolo clan.
Mawurndjul’s early years are spent around Mumeka and the surrounding Tomkinson, Liverpool and Mann rivers’ seasonal camps. He has an older brother, Jimmy Njiminjuma (1947–2004), and an older sister, Nancy Djalumba (circa 1949–1994). Later in this decade the family grows, with brother Kevin Djimarr born in 1955 to Kulunba and Wurrdjedje, and brothers Jimmy Lamburrwangga and James Iyuna born in 1958 and 1959, respectively, to Kulunba and Mary Marabamba (Kuninjku, 1938–2009). Kulunba later adopts Rita Lambinwarngga (circa 1950–1996) and Jimmy Djarrbbarali (born 1952), marrying their mother, Kuweybani, after her husband dies.
Mawurndjul’s parents are leading influences in his life. Not only an expert in many traditions, such as baking bush bread, Wurrdjedje is a skilled craftswoman, making both string and dilly bags. Kulunba is a revered marrkidjbu (traditional healer) and maker of mandjabu (fish traps). Kulunba grew up around Mumeka, where he maintained important sacred sites and set up seasonal camps. As a young man he became an experienced leader for the Kunabibi, Wubarr and Mardayin ceremonies, and later, as a senior custodian for Kurulk clan Country, he is consulted on all matters affecting these lands. During World War II Kulunba moved to the mission at Kunbarlanja (Oenpelli).
Close to Kuninjku lands, Kunbarlanja plays a significant role in the artistic history of the region. After the short-lived pastoral boom of the 1880s, which saw Aboriginal people across the Northern Territory killed or driven from their lands, in 1906 the buffalo hunter Paddy Cahill and his wife took up a lease near the East Alligator River at Oenpelli. In June 1912 the anthropologist Walter Baldwin Spencer, Northern Territory Chief Protector of Aborigines and Honorary Director of the National Museum of Victoria in Melbourne, visited Cahill’s station and collected approximately 50 bark paintings. Spencer and Cahill commissioned portable bark paintings for the museum’s collection, with Cahill sending another 110 artworks to Melbourne over 1912–1920, forming an important group of early western Arnhem Land works. The Cahill family leaves the station in 1924; the next year the Church Missionary Society establishes a mission, which operates for 50 years until 1975, when an Aboriginal town council assumes responsibility for the area. In 1989 the non-profit Aboriginal-owned art centre Injalak Arts opens in Kunbarlanja.
Anchor Kulunba with mandjabu, Bulkay, June 1980. Courtesy of AIATSIS, Jon C. Altman Collection
Maningrida becomes a Welfare Department Settlement, established by the Australian Government to repatriate Aboriginal people from the region from Darwin, to police the Welfare Ordinance 1953 (which commences 1957) and to facilitate assimilation. It is located on Kunibidji Country, near Manayingkarírra, a small spring close to the barge landing at the mouth of the Liverpool River, some 43 km downriver from the Mumeka region, where Mawurndjul lives. The Maningrida township had operated on and off as a small Native Affairs medical centre and trading post, where people exchanged artworks for supplies, over 1949–1950, when it was established by Syd Kyle-Little and Jack Doolan. The Kuninjku call the area Manawukan.
Later this year two seminal exhibitions showcase the art from Arnhem Land. In August a display of 31 bark paintings from the collection of the South Australian Museum, Adelaide, organised by anthropologist Charles Mountford, opens at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. The show then travels to Edinburgh, Zürich, Göteborg, Paris and Cologne. Over 23 December 1957 – 28 February 1958, The Art of Arnhem Land, organised by anthropologists Ronald and Catherine Berndt and the Anthropology Section of the University of Western Australia, features as part of the sixth Festival of Perth at the Western Australian Museum and the Art Gallery of Western Australia. The exhibition includes Kunwinjku artists Jimmy Midjawmidjaw (1897–1985) and Samuel Manggudja (1909–1983).
Mawurndjul’s brother Benny Barndawunga is born. He is the son of Kulunba and Wurrdjedje. A few years later the family welcomes Earl/Wal, born in 1964, the son of Kulunba and Marabamba, and then Susan Marawarr, born in 1967, the daughter of Kulunba and Wurrdjedje.
The Welfare Branch carves a track through the bush, connecting Kunbarlanja in the west to Maningrida on the coast. On finding a community of Kuninjku, some of whom are suffering from leprosy, a medical patrol is sent back to Marrkolidjban, where a young Mawurndjul is diagnosed with early signs of the disease on his hands. Anchor Kulunba agrees to send his son to the leprosarium at Kurrindin, near Maningrida. Many Kuninjku migrate to Maningrida during this time, to be near family members undergoing treatment.
Mawurndjul remains in Maningrida. He is entered into the colonial administrative record and begins attending school, where he is given the name ‘John’.
With financial support from the Maningrida Social Club, a craft shop is formed in the house of Reverend Gowan Armstrong, a Methodist missionary who had just become Maningrida’s chaplain. Kuninjku artists Mick Kubarkku (circa 1925–2007) and David Milaybuma (1938–1993) are the first regular painters in Maningrida. Kubarkku becomes a driving force in Kuninjku art, developing a unique decorative rarrk (cross-hatching) style.
David Attenborough’s book Quest under Capricorn is published. He recounts a 1959 visit to Maningrida during research for the film series of the same name on the Northern Territory, and includes a chapter on Maningrida artists, discussing the work of Mick Magani (Mildjingi, circa 1920–1984), in particular.
The craft shop becomes known as Maningrida Arts and Crafts.
Mawurndjul finishes primary school and undertakes a token “training allowance” with a Kuninjku work gang, picking up rubbish around the town by tractor and removing it to the dump at Karddjarráma Creek.
Around this time, Kulunba teaches his teenage son Mawurndjul how to paint rarrk designs for the Mardayin ceremony. The ceremony honours “the powers of ancestral beings in maintaining the human and natural life cycles”,2 with the rarrk body paintings physically connecting “initiates to the sacred power of the ancestral beings who made their clan lands”.3 Early on, Mawurndjul is recognised as highly proficient in the rarrk technique and his father assigns him the role of painting in the ceremony.
Anchor Kulunba at Mumeka, 1979. Courtesy of AIATSIS, Jon C. Altman Collection
Anchor Kulunba and John Mawurndjul preparing the kunkarlewabe (trapping fence) with manborkorr grass (Panicum trachyrachis), Yibidalama at Bulkay, June 1980. Courtesy of AIATSIS, Jon C. Altman Collection
With more than 30 men and women employed on a regular basis in art production, sales from the shop known as Maningrida Arts and Crafts increase dramatically.
In February, the Australia Council for the Arts establishes an Aboriginal Arts Advisory Committee to deliver federal funding for Aboriginal art. Dick Roughsey (1924–1985), a Lardil artist from Mornington Island, Queensland, chairs the committee, which operates until 1972.
Mawurndjul’s sister Hilda is born. Throughout the decade, the family grows, with sisters Nita and Annie born in 1975 and 1976, respectively, and brother Deon born in 1978. Hilda, Nita, Annie and Deon are the children of Kulunba and Marabamba.
The Federal Government Office of Aboriginal Affairs sets up Aboriginal Arts and Crafts Pty Ltd (AAC), a trading company designed to raise awareness and develop a market for Aboriginal art. Based in Sydney, the AAC opens several galleries across the country from 1972.
Back in Maningrida, artists John Bulunbulun (Ganalbingu, 1946–2010) and George Garrawun (Djinang, 1944–1993), and local teacher Dan Gillespie, assist Reverend Gowan Armstrong at the Maningrida craft shop.
Kuninjku artist Billy Yirawala (circa 1903–1976) makes history as the first bark painter to hold a solo exhibition. Organised by Sandra Le Brun Holmes and presented by the University of Sydney, the show is opened on 7 March by Professor AP Elkin. After an exhibition and lecture tour to Adelaide and Melbourne, Yirawala attends the exhibition in Sydney; the exhibition travels next to Orange as part of the town’s annual arts festival. On 2 June, Yirawala is awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his services to Aboriginal art. In October he wins the International Cooperation Art Award, becoming the first Aboriginal artist to receive a major competitive award.
Yirawala had relocated from his clan lands near Marrkolidjban to Minjilang, Croker Island, where he stayed during the late 1950s and 60s, before living briefly at Marrkolidjban outstation on the mainland in the early 1970s. On Minjilang he embarked on a groundbreaking series of works related to complex Kuninjku ceremonies. Yirawala is a central figure in the western Arnhem Land art movement. As one of the first artists to publicly express Mardayin designs, and having experienced such an enthusiastic response from wider Australian audiences, Yirawala sets the stage for the next generation of artists to develop.
Following a successful federal election campaign that committed to Aboriginal land rights, Gough Whitlam is elected Prime Minister and a new Labor Government is formed. Whitlam abolishes the White Australia Policy and introduces self-determination for Aboriginal people.
In Maningrida the outstation movement gains momentum. Dissatisfied with life in town, families had started leaving in 1968. The failure of assimilationist policies, and the fear of the mining presence in the region, prompted many people to return to small remote communities, where they could rely on hunting and maintain cultural practices, demonstrating their ownership of Country while protecting their clan lands. With establishment grants awarded by the state, by 1980 there are 32 outstations with populations ranging from 5 to 100 people. The Maningrida Outstation Resource Centre (established in 1974 as an arm of the Maningrida Council) services the network of outstations, facilitating communications, delivering provisions and collecting art for sale.
The outstation movement ushers in a new era of western Arnhem Land art, with senior artists including Yirawala and Mick Kubarkku instructing the younger generation. Jon Altman explains that “return to Country was associated with a rapid revival of the harvesting (or customary) economy and of ceremonial life; people were inspired to paint”.4 In late 1972 Maningrida Arts and Crafts (MAC) becomes one of the first art centres to receive state funding, enabling a fortnightly collection of artworks from outstations in both the dry and wet seasons.
Anchor Kulunba and his family move to Mumeka, an outstation south of Maningrida surrounded by resource-rich wetlands and rivers that are an important source of bush foods. Nearby is Bulkay Creek, a tributary of the Tomkinson River and a small tidal waterway where barramundi congregate in the early dry season. Here, Kulunba maintains fish-trapping activities and passes the skills of making and installing the trap to his sons. Kulunba’s authority and expertise is captured in the photographic essay “Anchor Kulunba: the artist at work”,5 assembled by Altman from documentary images he took in 1979–1980. For a time Kubarkku lives with Kulunba’s family at Mumeka, before forming his own outstation on the Mann River at Yikarrakkal. At Mumeka he paints with and influences Kulunba’s sons Njiminjuma, Mawurndjul and Iyuna. While living at the outstation, Mawurndjul’s knowledge of ceremony grows: “We came back to Mumeka and I saw my first Rainbow Serpent ceremony at Marrkolidjban. That’s where I entered that ceremony for the first time and we finished that ceremony at Marrkolidjban.”6
Kuninjku artist Peter Marralwanga (circa 1917–1987) and Yirawala are among the group of artists and families that establish an outstation at Marrkolidjban, north-west of Mumeka. Like Yirawala, Marralwanga becomes a supremely influential Kuninjku artist. Luke Taylor describes Marralwanga’s use of rarrk as “much less formal”, explaining that while his work “related broadly to Mardayin, he was not representing ceremonial designs”.7 Marralwanga goes on to influence the next generation of artists, including Njiminjuma, Mawurndjul and his own son Ivan Namirrkki (born 1961). Mawurndjul identifies senior artists Yirawala and Marralwanga as leading practitioners of Kuninjku art: “They took the rarrk from the Mardayin ceremony and put it on bark.”8
Njiminjuma is also a fundamental influence in Mawurndjul’s life and art practice. He teaches his younger brother to paint, outlining figures on barks for Mawurndjul to infill. While Njiminjuma begins painting for the market around this time, Mawurndjul’s first public works are a few years off.
These painting apprenticeships, which thrive in the context of the outstation movement, see not only the rapid expansion of Kuninjku art but bring about a refocusing on tradition. Taylor explains: “The importance of this apprenticeship for young Kuninjku artists reveals a societal concern to protect the meaningful system of iconic representation. Learning to paint is often reinforced by the telling of stories that relate to the way that the species gained the particular form that they have.”9
In December, Dan Gillespie becomes MAC’s first full-time art advisor, a position funded by the Aboriginal Arts Advisory Committee and the Maningrida Progress Association. Artists Peter Bandjurljurl (Djinang, circa 1942–1994) and John Bulunbulun assist Gillespie, who stays in the position until 1978. Peter Cooke is employed at the craft shop in Maningrida.
John Mawurndjul with Anna, Mumeka, May 1980. Courtesy of AIATSIS, Jon C. Altman Collection
John Mawurndjul with Anna, Mumeka, May 1980. Courtesy of AIATSIS, Jon C. Altman Collection
Around this time Mawurndjul marries Kay Lindjuwanga (born 1956), the daughter of Peter Marralwanga. Mawurndjul and Lindjuwanga’s first child, a daughter named Pamela Djawulba, is born. In 1975 they welcome their second child, daughter Anna Wurrkidj, and in 1978 their son Jimbesta/Sylvester is born.
On 20 May the Australia Council’s Aboriginal Arts Board (AAB) holds its first meeting in Canberra. All 14 members of the board, which includes Kunwinjku artist Samuel Manggudja, are Indigenous. With support from the AAB, Maningrida Arts and Crafts is officially established as an art centre owned by its artists.
At the Aboriginal Land Rights Commission, known also as the Woodward Royal Commission (1973–1974), in Maningrida, Yirawala speaks out against increased mining interests in his Country and damage to sacred sites.
On 17 April Yirawala (circa 1903–1976) passes away. He is buried at the cemetery on Croker Island. The Australian National Gallery in Canberra, established the year prior, purchases 139 works by Yirawala, its first major acquisition. In 1982 the gallery opens its doors to the public, marking the occasion with a commemorative 27-cent stamp featuring one of Yirawala’s paintings.
The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 passes on 16 December with historic bipartisan support. In Arnhem Land, Kuninjku are restored legal ownership of their lands, while 19 per cent of the total NT land area returns to Aboriginal ownership under inalienable freehold title. The process of the Act’s writing and passing sees the establishment of two land councils: the Northern Land Council (1974) and Central Land Council (1975).
The Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Robert Ian Viner, illegally evicts Dan Gillespie and Peter Cooke from Maningrida for a few months; they are replaced by arts and outstation support workers Paul Josif and Kevin Doolan. Later in the year, Cooke is recruited back to Maningrida Arts and Crafts and works until the end of 1981, with assistance from Charles Godjuwa (Burarra) and George Garruwan.
Around this time, support for MAC shifts from the Australia Council’s Aboriginal Arts Board to the Federal Department of Aboriginal Affairs.
Formerly the responsibility of the Maningrida Progress Association, Maningrida Arts and Crafts comes under the management of the newly incorporated Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation.
Bark painting from Arnhem Land is given an international platform at the third Biennale of Sydney, Australia’s leading exhibition of contemporary art. Curated by Nick Waterlow and titled European Dialogue, the exhibition features artists Djoni Bunguwuy (Gupapuyngu/Dhuwala, 1922–1982), David Malangi (Manharrngu/Djinang, 1927–1999) and George Milpurrurru (Ganalbingu, 1934–1998) from Ramingining.
Jon Altman is granted permission to undertake doctoral research in Maningrida in early 1979 and visits all the outstations in the region. He meets Mawurndjul at Mumeka in June 1979. Altman tells how “as a young man in his early twenties Mawurndjul had three things that mattered: hunting prowess for success in the harvesting economy; ceremonial expertise and experience for status in the ritual domain; and artistic and artisan skill that allowed him to earn cash”.10 Altman describes life at outstations in the 1970s as “tenuous and tough”. With no water reticulation or ablution facilities, Mumeka outstation “had rudimentary infrastructure, corrugated iron sheds and bark shelters constructed by residents; external communications occurred by unreliable Codan transceiver, a seasonal bush track and a river landing on the Liverpool River”.11
Art-making represents one of the only revenue streams for remote-living Kuninjku, and having apprenticed under his older brother, Njiminjuma, and father-in-law, Marralwanga, Mawurndjul begins painting for the market. Luke Taylor describes this early period of Mawurndjul’s art practice as characterised by predominately small barks of animals and spirit beings – bark paintings featuring bambirl (echidna), ngaldadmurrng (saratoga fish) and birlmu (large barramundi fish), alongside those depicting mimih spirits, yawkyawk and Ngalyod (the Rainbow Serpent). Two key works from this period are Ngaldadmurrng saratoga, completed in 1979, and Ngalyod, the Rainbow Serpent at Dilebang (circa 1979), in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. In these early works, the influence of Mawurndjul’s mentors is evident. Hetti Perkins sees Marralwanga’s “spirit of inventiveness” in Mawurndjul’s early paintings, “as he began to fixatedly pursue the optical potential of rarrk”.12
On 28 April the Djómi Museum opens in Maningrida with support from the Aboriginal Arts Board (AAB) of the Australia Council. Begun in the 1970s, the museum’s collection includes bark paintings, sculpture and artefacts amassed from Maningrida Arts and Crafts acquisitions, many assembled by MAC art advisor Peter Cooke, with donations from private collectors and people employed in Maningrida over the past four decades. The museum’s curator is Jimmy Burinyila (Djinang), whose father, Raiwala, had collaborated with Donald Thomson during his anthropological research in Arnhem Land. The Djómi Museum is considered an outstanding achievement by the AAB and its opening is timed to coincide with an AAB conference in Maningrida that seeks to develop the practice of community-based art advisors. Jon Altman is invited to attend and presents the paper “Arts and crafts and the Momega outstation economy”.
Over 9–13 June the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory exhibition Aboriginal Art: Past and Present opens as part of the second World Wilderness Congress in Cairns. The exhibition then tours to Port Moresby over 30 June – 12 July, where it is installed in the Australian High Commission as part of the third South Pacific Arts Festival. Including Mawurndjul’s MAGNT collection work Rainbow Serpent (1979), it is the first international exhibition of his work. Aboriginal Art: Past and Present tours throughout South-East Asia and Australia until 1986. The exhibition is presented at the Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, as part of the International Centenary Exhibition (23 September – 5 October); Australian Academy of Science, Canberra (1–30 November); The Residency (MAGNT), Alice Springs (10–31 December); NZVI building (MAGNT), Darwin (12–28 March 1981); Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, for the third General Assembly of the World Council of Indigenous People (26 April – 2 May 1981); Rockhampton Art Gallery (1–30 September 1981); National Museum of Singapore (25 February – 10 March 1982); Negara Museum, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (3–24 June 1983); Penang State Museum, Malaysia (4–15 July 1983); Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville (1–31 July 1985); and Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane (12 September – 27 January 1986).
Mawurndjul’s brother Jimmy Lamburrwangga (1958–1981) passes away. Noah, a son, is born to Mawurndjul and Lindjuwanga while the family is living at Mumeka. Later, their daughters Josephine Wurrkidj and Semeria Wurrkidj are born, in 1983 and 1985, respectively.
In August, Luke Taylor first visits Maningrida to assist Peter Cooke at the art centre and Jimmy Burinyila at the newly established Djómi Museum. Taylor meets Mawurndjul and discusses his more extensive research with Kuninjku. He returns in 1982 and 1983 and while based at Marrkolidjban, often drives to Mumeka, where Mawurndjul lives.
Later in the year the Kuninjku perform a Mamurrng ceremony for Cooke’s departure. Both Taylor and Altman are present and record the event.
An exhibition of paintings by Djakku, the first solo show of Peter Marralwanga’s work, is held in Perth at the government-run Aboriginal Traditional Arts Gallery over 29 November – 13 December. The exhibition is coordinated by Maningrida Arts and Crafts, curated by Peter Cooke and features more than 30 paintings.
Over 1–12 September, Mawurndjul participates in the group show Aboriginal Art at the Top, a commercial exhibition presented by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin. Co-curated by Peter Cooke and Jon Altman, and organised by Maningrida Arts and Crafts, the exhibition includes two 1982 bark paintings by Mawurndjul, Ngarrbek and Wayarra and Ngalyod. He exhibits alongside artists from Arnhem Land, the Tiwi Islands and the Central Desert.
Simon Kyle-Little (the son of Syd Kyle-Little, who had established the Maningrida trading post in 1949) begins work as the art advisor at MAC, continuing until 1983. Charles Godjuwa and George Garruwan continue to work at MAC, with assistance from Djon Mundine (Bandjalung).
John Mawurndjul, The Artist at Work: Dolobbo bim (Bark Painting), photographic essay by Jenni Carter, first published in Crossing Country: The Alchemy of Western Arnhem Land Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2004
John Mawurndjul, The Artist at Work: Dolobbo bim (Bark Painting), photographic essay by Jenni Carter, first published in Crossing Country: The Alchemy of Western Arnhem Land Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2004
John Mawurndjul, The Artist at Work: Dolobbo bim (Bark Painting), photographic essay by Jenni Carter, first published in Crossing Country: The Alchemy of Western Arnhem Land Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2004
On one of his first trips to an exhibition, Mawurndjul attends the opening of the Canberra School of Arts show Artists of Arnhem Land: Maningrida Arts and Crafts present an exhibition of traditional Aboriginal art, presented over 4–9 July. He travels with Charles Godjuwa, Robert Bibora (Gun-nartpa, born 1946) Peter Bandjurljurl and England Banggala (Gun-nartpa, 1925–2001). Mawurndjul exhibits 4 bark paintings depicting Namarrkon (the Lightning Spirit), Namorrorddo (the Shooting Star Spirit) and Ngalyod (the Rainbow Serpent). Jon Altman organises for Mawurndjul to meet Wally Caruana, a curator at the recently opened Australian National Gallery. The gallery begins to collect Mawurndjul’s work the following year.
Geoff Todd, an accomplished artist, becomes art advisor at Maningrida Arts and Crafts over 1984–1985, working with Charles Godjuwa, chair of Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation, and artist Peter Bandjurljurl.
For 6 months, artist George Burchett is employed as art advisor at Maningrida Arts and Crafts, working closely with Godjuwa. By the end of this period Burchett recruits Peter Danaja (Burarra/Martay) to work on the art centre’s bookkeeping.
When Burchett leaves, Charles Godjuwa becomes senior art advisor at Maningrida Arts and Crafts. Peter Danaja continues to assist at the art centre, working closely with Godjuwa. Diane Moon, who had moved to Maningrida in 1985 to undertake an Australia Council-funded weaving project, is recruited to assist Godjuwa and, as he has many diverse roles in the community (he is later instrumental in the establishment of the Djelk Rangers), Moon becomes the MAC art advisor. As the first woman in the role, Moon helps foster Maningrida women’s art production, working with regular weavers such as Mawurndjul’s mother Mary Wurrdjedje to encourage younger artists.
Mawurndjul’s work is exhibited overseas in The Art of the First Australian at Kobe City Museum, Japan. The exhibition is the result of years of research in Maningrida by a Japanese team led by Shuzo Koyama, in association with Sachiko Kubota at Kobe City Museum. Featuring artists David Malangi, Bardayal Lofty Nadjamerrek (Kunwinjku, circa 1926–2009), Djawida Nadjongorle (Kunwinjku, 1943–2008), Bobby Barrdjaray Nganjmirra (Kunwinjku, 1915–1992), Dick Ngulangulei Murrumurru (Dangbon/Kunwinjku, 1920–1988) and George Garrawun from Arnhem Land, the exhibition runs from 26 July to 31 August.
Mawurndjul with Jon Altman’s book Hunter-Gatherers today: an Aboriginal economy in north Australia, Maningrida, 2015. Photograph: Murray Garde
Cover of Jon Altman’s book Hunter-gatherers Today: An Aboriginal Economy in North Australia, published in 1987
Kay Lindjuwanga’s father, Peter Marralwanga (circa 1917–1987), passes away.
Jon Altman publishes the book Hunter-gatherers Today: An Aboriginal Economy in North Australia, the cover of which features a portrait of Mawurndjul taken during a hunt he and Altman undertook to the Bulkay region in April 1980. The book provides an ethnographic analysis of the economy at Mumeka outstation, where Mawurndjul and his extended family live, explaining the resilience of contemporary hunter-gatherers who are simultaneously engaging with market capitalism and the Australian state to create an unusual economy and lifeway. Two years later, Altman and Luke Taylor write a report to the Australia Council for Employment and Training titled The Economic Viability of Aboriginal Outstations and Homelands, which utilises time allocation data that Altman collected at Mumeka outstation in 1979 and 1980 to empirically demonstrate the considerable work effort of Kuninjku people in different sectors of their transformed postcolonial economy. Altman’s research provides some of the only information available on the work effort of artists and the monetary returns per hour from such effort.
Described as “a watershed in the evolution of Mawurndjul’s iconography”,13 this year sees the artist’s work in exhibitions across the country and overseas.
Two lorrkkon (hollow logs) by Mawurndjul are included in The Aboriginal Memorial (1987–1988), an installation of 200 hollow log coffins that honours Indigenous people who have died defending their Country since 1788. The Aboriginal Memorial is displayed within the seventh Biennale of Sydney, curated by Nick Waterlow and titled 1988 Australian Biennale: From the Southern Cross – A View of World Art circa 1940–1988. The Aboriginal Memorial is acquired by the Australian National Gallery collection in Canberra to mark the nation’s bicentenary.
Mawurndjul features in his first solo exhibition, with his paintings shown alongside objects from Maningrida. The exhibition, Maningrida: An exhibition of weaving and carvings from the community of Maningrida and paintings on bark by John Mawandjul, is presented by Garry Anderson Gallery, Sydney, over 7–21 May.
Mawurndjul and Njiminjuma travel with Maningrida Arts and Crafts art advisor Diane Moon to Australian public institutions that hold their work. They visit Museum Victoria and the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, the Australian National Gallery in Canberra, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales and Museum of Contemporary Art Australia site office in Sydney. Moon recalls: “Seeing the reverence and care afforded their paintings was revelatory for the artists. In Sydney they were welcomed at the small site office for the proposed MCA by its then joint directors Bernice Murphy and Leon Paroissien.”14 Impressed by the plans for the museum, Mawurndjul paints Ngalyod (Female Rainbow Serpent) (1988) and Nawarramulmul (Shooting Star Spirit) (1988) for the MCA Collection.
On 28 August George Chaloupka opens the Gunwinggu Artists exhibition. The show is part of the first international Australian Rock Art Research Association congress in Darwin, which Mawurndjul, Iyuna, Namirrkki and Njiminjuma attend, accompanied by Diane Moon and linguist and teacher Murray Garde. Their bark paintings are exhibited within the Beaufort Hotel’s convention centre and the Darwin Performing Arts Centre gallery, on display until 7 September. Mawurndjul’s barks, Moon explains, were painted for the “informed local and international audience”; they “became monumental in scale to accommodate the powerful imagery through which Mawurndjul could convey the intensity of his feelings for this ancient source of cultural knowledge”.15 One such bark is the 2-metre tall Namanjwarre, Saltwater Crocodile (1988), purchased after the exhibition by the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
Two weeks later at the fifth National Aboriginal Art Award (now the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards), Mawurndjul wins the Rothmans Foundation Award for the best painting in traditional media for his work Ngalyod (1988). The award is presented by the Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences, Darwin, and the painting is acquired by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. The award exhibition is held over 11–25 September.
At over 2 metres in height, MAGNT’s Ngalyod is indicative of the artist’s larger bark paintings depicting the Rainbow Serpent in “evermore complex figurative arrangements”.16 Luke Taylor explains: “Mawurndjul’s experimentation with paintings of Ngalyod that can be conceived as maps reveal a broader concern for paintings of Country, of the way that Country can be conceived as transformations of the ancestral essence, and of expressions of these powers that exist in landscape.”17
In October, the exhibition Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia opens at the Asia Society Galleries in New York. It includes Mawurndjul’s circa 1986 bark painting Lightning Figure from the collection of the South Australian Museum (SAM), Adelaide. Curated by Peter Sutton, Dreamings is presented in association with SAM and tours to the David and Alfred Smart Gallery at the University of Chicago, then to Los Angeles, Melbourne and Adelaide.
As the families of the Kurulk clan grow, Mumeka outstation becomes too small to accommodate everyone. Njiminjuma decides to set up an outstation 20 kilometres south, at Kurrurldul, and moves there with his family. The camp is near a creek crossing and site of the sacred Wakwak (Crow) Djang, which Njiminjuma safeguards by living nearby. The subject of Wakwak becomes a key theme in Njiminjuma’s later practice.
Mawurndjul’s bark paintings Nawarramulmul (Shooting Star Spirit) (1988) and Ngalyod (Female Rainbow Serpent) (1988) are the first works registered in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney.
Over 1–18 February, Mawurndjul participates in the group exhibition Recent Work from Maningrida and Ramingining: Bark Paintings and Sculpture at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.
Over 18 May – 14 August, Mawurndjul’s work is included in Magiciens de la terre, cementing his name and the art of western Arnhem Land in the global postmodernist dialogue. Including the work of approximately 50 artists from the West and a similar number working in the non-western tradition, Magiciens de la terre is curated by Jean-Hubert Martin, partly in response to the 1984 exhibition Primitivism in 20th-Century Art at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and draws inspiration from the fourth Biennale of Sydney (1982), curated by William Wright and titled Vision in Disbelief, which featured a large sand painting and performance by Warlpiri artists from Lajamanu. The Australian representation at Magiciens is organised by co-curators Bernhard Lüthi and Peter Yanada McKenzie (Eora/Anaiwan), with support from MCA Director Leon Paroissien and Chief Curator Bernice Murphy. Magiciens is held at two venues in Paris, the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Grande Halle de la Villette, the latter featuring Mawurndjul’s work. He is represented by 6 bark paintings: the two 1988 works in the MCA Collection, Nawarramulmul (Shooting Star Spirit) and Ngalyod (Female Rainbow Serpent), and 4 other 1988 works, Ngalyod (Rainbow Serpent), Kumurken (Freshwater Crocodile at Kabararbadi), Ngalyod Lambalk (Rainbow Serpent and Glider Possum) and Wayarra (Dangerous Spirit). In the lead-up to the exhibition, American director Philip Haas films Mawurndjul preparing barks and ochres in his bush studio outside Maningrida. Diane Moon explains that Haas’s 1990 documentary, The Giant Woman and the Lightning Man, provides a rare insight into Mawurndjul’s practice: “it shows his remarkable draughtsmanship as he confidently captures spirit beings in dynamic drawings that were later infilled with an extremely fine application of rarrk (cross‑hatching)”.18
Back home at the Australian National Gallery in Canberra, the exhibition Aboriginal Art: The Continuing Tradition features two pivotal transitional paintings by Mawurndjul, both from 1988 and depicting the Kudjarnngal site. Kudjarnngal is where Ngalyod killed and swallowed two yawkyawk; it is also the location of the delek mine where Mawurndjul sources his highest quality white pigment. The exhibition is curated by Wally Caruana and runs from 3 June – 17 September.
Over 12–28 July, Deutscher Gertrude Street gallery in Melbourne presents the group exhibition Kunwinjku: bark paintings by James Iyuna, John Mawurndjurl and Ivan Namirikki of the Kunwinjku language group of Western Arnhem Land. Mawurndjul travels to the opening with his older brother, Jimmy Njiminjuma.
Around this time, Hogarth Galleries in Sydney exhibits the work of Maningrida artists, including Mawurndjul, in curated exhibitions that focus on themes, narratives and family groups.
Diane Moon becomes senior art advisor at Maningrida Arts and Crafts, working through until 1994. She is assisted in the role by Murray Garde.
John Mawurndjul and Jimmy Njiminjuma at a group exhibition, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, October 1990
Invitation for group exhibition at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, featuring John Mawurndjul’s Yawkyawk (1990)
Mawurndjul features in a series of major group exhibitions, both in Australia and overseas. Curated by Michael O’Ferrall, Keepers of the Secrets: Aboriginal Art from Arnhem Land, at the Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA), Perth, over 18 October 1990 – 10 February 1991, features Mawurndjul’s 1989 bark painting in the AGWA collection, Namarden/Namarrkon – Lightning Spirit.
Over 12 December 1990 – 3 March 1991, the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, presents Spirit in Land: Bark Paintings from Arnhem Land. The show, curated by Judith Ryan, includes two seminal 1990 bark paintings in the NGV collection: Mardayin Ceremonial Designs from Kakodbebuldi and Mardayin Burrk-dorrengh (Mardayin Body Design). Both represent the Mardayin ceremony site of Kakodbebuldi in Mawurndjul’s mother’s Country.
L’été Australien, or The Australian Summer, is exhibited at the Musée Fabre and Galerie Saint-Ravy in Montpellier, France, over 30 June – 13 September 1990, and includes Mawurndjul’s work among a group of more than 60 Australian artists. The show is organised by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra.
A few months later, Mawurndjul’s work is included in the group exhibition Contemporary Aboriginal Art 1990: From Australia, curated by Anthony Bourke and presented in association with the Aboriginal Arts Committee of the Australia Council at the Third Eye Centre, Glasgow. The exhibition is opened by artist Lin Onus (Yorta Yorta, 1948–1996) and runs from 4 August 1990 to 27 January 1991, including a tour to Swansea and Manchester in the UK. It includes a bark painting by Mawurndjul titled Ngalyod (Rainbow Serpent) (1990).
Crusoe Kuningbal (Kuninjku, circa 1922–1984) had pioneered the making of mimih spirits when he began carving sculptures for Mamurrng ceremonies in the 1960s. He progressed to producing work for the art market the following decade. After his death in 1984, Kuningbal’s sons, Crusoe Kurddal (Kuninjku, born 1961) and Owen Yalandja (Kuninjku, born 1960), continued production of these sculptures, with Yalandja focusing on the yawkyawk figure. In the early 1990s, with the encouragement of Maningrida Arts and Crafts (MAC) arts advisor Diane Moon, other Kuninjku artists begin making carved sculptures. Over 1990–1991, MAC embarks on a sculpture project involving 16 artists, which eventually leads to the landmark group exhibition Sculptures from Maningrida at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne. The NGV acquires the whole collection of 26 spirit figures. The creative flourishing of contemporary western Arnhem Land bark painting is now also witnessed in these burgeoning sculpture practices, and Mawurndjul further develops his carving practice to include mimih spirits such as the 1992 example now held in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (p.262). Early sculptures by Mawurndjul include Turtle (1986) and River Whale Shark (1989) in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, and Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney, respectively.
While women had been employed in art production at Maningrida for many years, and in the 1980s had anonymously assisted their fathers and husbands by preparing barks and infilling and dotting bark paintings, in the 1990s women begin painting under their own names, bringing small works into the art centre. Among the first women to paint on bark is Kay Lindjuwanga, who is taught by Mawurndjul: “I started to paint at Mumeka and then kept going when we moved to Milmilngkan. Balang was teaching me for a long time but not anymore. I paint on my own now.”19
Over 2–20 October, Mawurndjul features in a group exhibition at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, alongside brothers Njiminjuma and Iyuna, among other Maningrida artists.
Curated by Diane Moon, the exhibition The Woven Image: Contemporary Art from Arnhem Land is held at the Australian Museum, Sydney, over 15 December 1990 – 3 February 1991, as part of the Festival of Sydney. It had previously been shown in March 1988 at the Anthropology Museum, University of Queensland, in Brisbane as Fibre Connections: An exhibition of weaving from Maningrida, Central Arnhem Land. The exhibition of around 600 objects, created in the mid- to late 1980s, largely by women, becomes known as the Maningrida Collection and is deposited in 1994 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, on a long-term basis and under joint-custodian arrangement with the Maningrida community. The collection includes work by England Banggala, John Bulunbulun, Bob Burruwal (Rembarrnga, born 1952), Lena Djamarrayku (Rembarrnga, 1943–2005), Melba Gunjarrwanga (Kuninjku, b.1959), Anchor Kulunba, Mary Marabamba, Mary Wurrdjedje, Susan Marawarr, Kate Miwulku (Ndjébbana, 1950–2011) and Lena Yarinkura (Kune/Rembarrnga, born 1960), among many others. The initial collection includes Mawurndjul’s 1985–1987 bark painting Ancestral Spirit Beings Collecting Honey; his bark painting Mandjabu at Mumeka (2002–2003) is later added to the group.
Mawurndjul is awarded a Fellowship grant from the Australia Council for the Arts; with this support he spends the next 2 years making a suite of bark paintings, which is later acquired by Queensland-based collector Aime Proost.
The first solo exhibition of Mawurndjul’s work in Melbourne is held. Titled John Mawandjul, the show is presented by Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi over 1–19 October. Pizzi goes on to represent Mawurndjul, with regular solo and group exhibitions throughout the 1990s and 2000s.
Around this time, Mawurndjul establishes his own outstation at Milmilngkan, moving south from Mumeka with Kay Lindjuwanga and their children. A billabong on a tributary of Kurrurldul Creek, Milmilngkan, is near the sacred site of Dilebang and 4 kilometres south of Kurrurldul, the outstation of Mawurndjul’s older brother, Njiminjuma.
In the last half of the year, Mawurndjul’s work features in the exhibition Crossroads: Towards a New Reality – Aboriginal Art from Australia. The show is presented by the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, Japan, over 22 September – 8 November, and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo over 17 November – 20 December. Organised by the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, it features Mawurndjul’s collection work Namarden/Namarrkon – Lightning Spirit (1989).
John Mawurndjul and Daniel Mambirri, 1993
Nathan, Susan Marawarr, Jonah, Anchor Kalunba, Clancy, Tyrus, Dion and John Mawurndjul at Mumeka, 1993. Photograph: Stephan Erfut
Maningrida Arts and Crafts becomes Maningrida Arts and Culture and moves premises. The art centre establishes a Cultural Research Office and linguist Murray Garde becomes the inaugural Cultural Research Officer. Garde had worked as a teacher in the Maningrida area since 1988, living with the Kuninjku community and becoming a fluent speaker of the Kuninjku dialect.
Over 24 April – 4 July, Mawurndjul participates in the major group exhibition Aratjara: Art of the First Australians at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf. Curated by Bernhard Lüthi in collaboration with the Aboriginal Arts Unit of the Australia Council, and with curatorial support from the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, the exhibition tours over 1993–1994 to the Hayward Gallery, London, and the Louisiana Museum, Humlebæk, Denmark. Mawurndjul’s work Nawarramulmul (Shooting Star Spirit) (1988) from the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, is included in Aratjara, and he travels to Düsseldorf for the opening, along with Diane Moon from MAC and other exhibiting artists, including Dolly Nampijinpa (Warlpiri, circa 1935–2004), Gordon Bennett (1955–2014) and Lin Onus. While in Europe, Mawurndjul visits Cologne to see a Pablo Picasso exhibition, and Amsterdam to see the Rijksmuseum.
Back home, Mawurndjul’s bark paintings Ngalyod, the Rainbow Serpent, at Milmilngkan (1990) and Wayarra Spirit (1990) feature in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art display of the Parliament House Art Collection in Canberra.
Mawurndjul and Lindjuwanga’s son Menian is born. Later they welcome another daughter, Jeselon, born in 1997, while the family is living at Milmilngkan outstation. Around this time, Mawurndjul’s sister Nancy Djalumba (circa 1949–1994) passes away.
Mawurndjul features in the solo exhibition John Mawurndjurl: Bark Paintings and Sculpture alongside the group show Artefacts from Maningrida at Savode Gallery, Brisbane, over 5–27 August. The Queensland Art Gallery acquires the work Mardayin and Wongkorr, (Sacred Objects and Dilly Bags) (1994) from the show. An article in the Courier Mail calls the exhibition of Mawurndjul’s bark paintings and sculpture “the most impressive Aboriginal art show seen in Brisbane for a long time” and describes his work as “a breathtaking combination of boldness and exquisite refinement”.20
Over 14 June – 7 October, the exhibition MCA Aboriginal Art: The Maningrida Collection marks the acquisition of the collection on joint-custodian basis at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney. Mawurndjul’s bark painting Ancestral Spirit Beings Collecting Honey (1985–1987) is included in the exhibition, curated by Diane Moon.
Later in the year, Mawurndjul’s work is included in Power of the Land: Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, over 13 October – 5 December.
Around August–September, Art Cologne rejects an application to exhibit from Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, despite Pizzi’s successful participation at the fair the year before. The organisers accuse Pizzi of including “inauthentic” Aboriginal art and stipulate the fair’s exclusion of “folk art”.21 The application includes Mawurndjul’s work. After widespread condemnation of the fair’s decision, including a discussion on German television between Bernhard Lüthi and Lin Onus, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi is eventually allowed to exhibit.
Peter Danaja becomes the inaugural Aboriginal Heritage Officer in the Cultural Research Office at Maningrida Arts and Culture, continuing until 1999. The art centre team at this time includes Diane Moon, Murray Garde and Margaret Carew.
John Mawurndjul, The Artist at Work: Dolobbo bim (Bark Painting), photographic essay by Jenni Carter, first published in Crossing Country: The Alchemy of Western Arnhem Land Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2004
John Mawurndjul, The Artist at Work: Dolobbo bim (Bark Painting), photographic essay by Jenni Carter, first published in Crossing Country: The Alchemy of Western Arnhem Land Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2004
Mawurndjul supplements his art practice with diverse work throughout the region, from rock art tourism to environmental management. Around this time, he assists the Djelk Rangers with advice on controlled burning and weed infestations, identifying an early outbreak of Mimosa pigra for management by the rangers.
Having assisted former senior art advisor Diane Moon, Andrew Hughes begins work as the senior art advisor at Maningrida Arts and Culture (MAC), continuing until 1998. He is an experienced wood artist and during his time at Maningrida, sculpture production develops. Hughes, Murray Garde and Peter Danaja work together to modernise MAC’s technological equipment and oversee the refurbishment of Djómi Museum. Garde works for MAC until 1998, when he moves away from Maningrida.
Mawurndjul’s father, Anchor Kulunba (circa 1920–1996), and sister Rita Lambinwarngga (circa 1950–1996) both pass away.
On 23 August Djómi Museum reopens in Maningrida after major renovations. The new building, which has storage facilities for the collection, includes a permanent display showcasing the full breadth of the collection, from bark painting and weaving to large watercraft and ceremonial adornments, accompanied by photographs documenting ceremonial performances and object manufacture.
Mawurndjul’s work is included in two major international exhibitions. Over 5 October – 8 December, he participates in the 23rd Bienal Internacional de São Paulo in Brazil, on display at the Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo, Parque do Ibirapuera. Three of his bark paintings are shown within the Universalis exhibition, which is organised by a curatorium including Jean-Hubert Martin, who had included Mawurndjul in Magiciens de la terre in 1989.
Mawurndjul is then included in the National Gallery of Australia-organised exhibition The eye of the storm: Eight Contemporary Indigenous Australian Artists over 22 October – 26 November at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. The exhibition is curated by Djon Mundine, Wally Caruana, Avril Quaill and Susan Jenkins, and includes a series of bark paintings of Mawurndjul’s from the late 1980s and early 1990s. The eye of the storm travels to the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, the following year, from 12 March to 16 May 1997.
After visiting the region for sustained periods since 1981, working in particular with Peter Marralwanga and his family at Marrkolidjban outstation, Luke Taylor releases the book Seeing the Inside: Bark Painting in Western Arnhem Land, providing a detailed study on the artistic traditions of the region.
Mawurndjul continues exhibiting his work overseas. Over 14 June – 13 July his sculptures are included in the Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi exhibition Metamorphosis: Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Photography and Sculpture, presented as a satellite show of the Venice Biennale at Palazzo Papadopoli. His work is shown alongside that of fellow Maningrida artists Bob Burruwal, Owen Yalandja, England Banggala, Crusoe Kurddal and Mick Kubarkku, among others, and the photography of Bigambul artist Leah King-Smith (born 1957).
The following month Mawurndjul is one of several artists to participate in In place (out of time): Contemporary Art in Australia, an exhibition curated by Howard Morphy and David Elliott and presented at Museum of Modern Art Oxford, the UK, over 20 July – 2 November.
In Sydney, the Art Gallery of New South Wales features two 1985 collection works by Mawurndjul, Yawkyawk and Ngalyod – The Rainbow Serpent, in the exhibition Bulada, curated by Ken Watson. Bulada runs from 23 August to 14 December 1997.
Over 10 September – 2 October, Mawurndjul features alongside John Bulunbulun in an exhibition at Annandale Galleries, Sydney. In a Sydney Morning Herald review, John McDonald declares: “it is impossible to imagine anything more stunning than the bark paintings of John Mawurndjul at Annandale Galleries”.22
On 31 August the exhibition A material thing: Objects from the Collection opens at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. The show is curated by Hetti Perkins and Ken Watson and features two early works by Mawurndjul, Turtle (1986) and Lorrkkon (circa 1986). The show closes on 9 February 1999.
Fiona Salmon begins work as the senior art advisor at Maningrida Arts and Culture, continuing until 2001. Salmon works with a strong artworker team, including Derek Kuningbal Carter (Burarra), John B Fisher (Djinang, nephew of George Garrawun), Leon Bandicha Ali (Burarra/Martay) and Michelle Culpitt, with Adam Saulwick in the Cultural Research Office.
Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi applies to Art Cologne with a group exhibition, including Mawurndjul, James Iyuna and England Banggala from Maningrida, Kuku/Erub artist Destiny Deacon (born 1957), Bigambul artist Leah King-Smith and Wiradjuri artist HJ Wedge (1957–2012). Following the events of 1994, Art Cologne again rejects Pizzi’s application to exhibit, requesting that the gallery display the work of only HJ Wedge. Pizzi refuses to participate. Bernhard Lüthi, the Swiss curator who had included Mawurndjul in the 1993–94 exhibition Aratjara and who had helped to overturn the 1994 rejection by Art Cologne, tries to organise a symposium to discuss the controversy, but financial support from Australian agencies is not forthcoming.
Mawurndjul’s brother Benny Barndawunga (1960–1999) passes away.
Around this time, in the late 1990s, Mawurndjul begins teaching his daughter Anna Wurrkidj to paint and she goes on to become an esteemed Kuninjku artist in her own right. Mawurndjul describes women painting as “something new”. He explains the process of teaching his daughter Anna: “At first I used to hold her hand as she did the cross-hatching, and now she knows how to paint by herself. I showed her, and also told her to learn how to peel off the bark from the tree. I’ll paint the background for her and the internal organisation of the design. She then does the cross-hatching.”23 The Maningrida Arts and Culture logo depicting a saratoga fish is based on one of these paintings, with the outline and white background painted by Mawurndjul and the rarrk infill by Anna. Mawurndjul and Lindjuwanga’s daughters Josephine Wurrkidj and Semeria Wurrkidj also become artists, while their sons Jimbesta/Sylvester and Noah produce some artworks.
Over 26 March – 2 May, Mawurndjul’s 1996 painting Mardayin Ceremony Theme 3 is included in Spinifex Runner: A Collection of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Fibre Art at Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery, Sydney. The show is curated by Diane Moon and tours regional centres over the next year.
Over 10 August – 4 September, Annandale Galleries in Sydney presents their first solo exhibition of Mawurndjul’s work. The gallery goes on to represent Mawurndjul, with regular solo and group exhibitions throughout the 2000s. A parallel solo exhibition of Ivan Namirrkki’s work is shown at Annandale Galleries at the same time, and Jon Altman opens the exhibitions.
In February, Mawurndjul participates in the group show Fighting for Culture at Indigenart, Perth.
In September, at the 16th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Mawurndjul is awarded the Telstra Bark Painting Award for his work Mardayin at Mukkamukka (1999). The award exhibition is presented by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, over 18 September – 21 November. This award-winning work, now held in the museum’s collection, represents what Luke Taylor interprets as the third period in Mawurndjul’s practice – experimental artworks that depict elements of the Mardayin ceremony and representations of ancestrally created landscapes. Increasingly loaded with white paint, Mawurndjul’s paintings become dominated by rarrk. “The earlier artists created these works on a scale that physically related to that of a design painted on a human chest,” Taylor explains. “However, Mawurndjul, by contrast, paints relatively massive barks where the dotted section lines become gossamer threads – a fine net that imposes structure on rhythms of rarrk that are the true focus of the work.”24
Mawurndjul is chosen to participate in the 12th Biennale of Sydney by an international curatorial panel that includes Sydney-based curators Nick Waterlow and Hetti Perkins. A suite of Mardayin-themed artworks are displayed at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia over 26 May – 30 July, alongside the 1988 MCA collection works Nawarramulmul (Shooting Star Spirit) and Ngalyod (Female Rainbow Serpent). Mawurndjul attends the launch, where he meets Japanese artist Yoko Ono. The two discuss each other’s work. Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, Sebastian Smee describes the “proudly traditional and yet boldly innovative work of John Mawurndjul” in the biennale as “among the most compelling works in the display”.25
After returning from a European tour to Lausanne, Switzerland, Hanover, Germany, Helsinki, Finland, and St Petersburg, Russia, the exhibition Aboriginal Art in Modern Worlds is held at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, over 8 September – 8 November. It includes ten artworks painted by Mawurndjul in the 1990s.
Mawurndjul undertakes some work for a tourism company that arranges trips for trophy hunters. Bawinanga Safaris, which operates only briefly until 2001, enlists Mawurndjul to assist in tracking buffalo and pig. He also continues to advise the Djelk Rangers on a consultancy basis, especially with aerial burning from helicopters on the Kurulk lands that he owns and Darnkolo lands he manages.
Around this time, Mawurndjul’s brother Earl/Wal (1964–circa 2000) passes away.
Over 14 March – 11 June the exhibition MCA Unpacked, curated by Rachel Kent, features the two 1988 bark paintings by Mawurndjul in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, Ngalyod (Female Rainbow Serpent) and Nawarramulmul (Shooting Star Spirit).
Later that year, Mawurndjul participates in the exhibition In the heart of Arnhem Land: Myth and the Making of Contemporary Aboriginal Art, co-curated by Apolline Kohen and Fiona Salmon. The show is presented by the Musée de l’Hôtel-Dieu, Mantes-la-Jolie, over 24 June – 31 October, and features work from 46 artists made over 40 years, with loans from the Musée National des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie, Paris. Mawurndjul travels to France to attend the opening.
Over 5 September – 6 October, Mawurndjul participates in the group show Arnhem Land Carvings and Bark Paintings at Hogarth Galleries, Sydney.
On 9 August at the 19th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Mawurndjul is awarded the Telstra Bark Painting Award for his work Buluwana (2002), now held in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. The award exhibition is held at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, over 9 August – 27 October.
Lucy Stewart works as art advisor at Maningrida Arts and Culture (MAC) for a short time, with Michelle Culpitt, Kellie Austin and Apolline Kohen assisting. Stewart resigns in August. In November, Kohen is appointed Arts Director of MAC, after having worked with the art centre in various roles since 1998. The team, which also oversees the Djómi Museum, includes Culpitt as Assistant Arts Director, Austin as Marketing Manager, Christiane Keller as Cultural Research Officer, and a group of artworkers – Derek Kuningbal Carter, John B Fisher and Leon Bandicha Ali – with multi-generational and deep connections to the art centre, all of them having served at MAC since the late 1990s. The governance structure of the art centre relies on key senior artists such as Mawurndjul’s brother James Iyuna.
The exhibition Maningrida Threads: Aboriginal Art from the MCA Collection, curated by Apolline Kohen and Leon Bandicha Ali, is held over 6 March – 1 June at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney. It features two collection works by Mawurndjul, Ancestral Spirit Beings Collecting Honey (1985–1987) and Mandjabu at Mumeka (2002–2003).
On 18 September at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Mawurndjul is presented with the Clemenger Contemporary Art Award. The judges, Joan Clemenger, Elizabeth Ann Macgregor and Bill Henson, choose Mawurndjul from a group of 15 artists, citing “the physical presence and the immediate and lasting impact” of his work.26 The award exhibition is curated by Jason Smith and held over 19 September – 23 November; it includes work by Mawurndjul that is later acquired by the NGV. Mawurndjul says in his acceptance speech: “I am a painter on bark and exclusively so. I won’t change … I only paint the things my father talked about and so I keep those things in my bark paintings, in my cross-hatching … I hold on to what my father talked about and taught me, and so I keep painting on bark.”27
Mawurndjul begins a 2-year term of service on the board of ANKAAA, the Association of Northern, Kimberley and Arnhem Aboriginal Artists (now ANKA, the Arnhem, Northern and Kimberley Artists Aboriginal Association).
John Mawurndjul’s work on the cover of Art & Australia, vol 42, no 1, spring 2004.
John Mawurndjul speaking at the opening of Crossing Country: The Alchemy of Western Arnhem Land Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2004. Photograph: Mim Stirling, AGNSW
Mawurndjul is chosen by curators Brenda L Croft and Hetti Perkins as one of eight artists for the Musée du Quai Branly’s Australian Indigenous Art Commission in Paris. The new museum amalgamates the collections of the Musée National des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie (now closed) and the ethnographic department of the Musée de l’Homme.
In June, building on Maningrida’s long history of printmaking, beginning in the 1970s and with more recent workshops undertaken by Northern Editions, Darwin, in 1996 and the Australian Print Workshop in Melbourne in the early 2000s, the first workshop with French printmaker Jean Kohen is held at Djinkarr Ranger Station, a research facility near Maningrida. In collaboration with Kohen, about 10 participating artists, Mawurndjul and Lindjuwanga among them, develop a unique ‘Maningrida brown’ colour. The resulting prints are sent to the newly opened Maningrida Arts and Culture retail outlet in Darwin, where they sell out.
On 13 August at the 21st Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Kay Lindjuwanga is awarded the Telstra Bark Painting Award for her work Buluwana at Dilebang (2004). The award exhibition is held at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, over 14 August – 7 November. Lindjuwanga’s first commercial solo exhibition is held over 23 September – 15 October at Aboriginal and Pacific Art in Sydney. Opened by Jon Altman, Lindjuwanga’s solo show is timed to coincide with a major exhibition of western Arnhem Land art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), Sydney.
Over 24 September – 12 December the landmark survey exhibition Crossing Country: The Alchemy of Western Arnhem Land Art is held at the AGNSW. Curated by Hetti Perkins, the exhibition draws on the gallery’s collection to chart a century of bark painting from the region. It includes the work of Mawurndjul and Lindjuwanga and their extended families, with more than 20 works created by Mawurndjul over two decades. The MCA Collection work Nawarramulmul (Shooting Star Spirit) (1988) is included. Mawurndjul travels to Sydney for the exhibition opening, launching the show with a speech in Kuninjku.
In celebration of Crossing Country, the quarterly journal Art & Australia includes an essay on Mawurndjul’s work by Judith Ryan, titled “John Mawurndjul: abstract vision”, in its spring issue. His 1983 bark painting Namarrkon Ngal-daluk, the Female Lightning Spirit in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, appears on the magazine’s front cover.
Mawurndjul’s brother and mentor Jimmy Njiminjuma (1947–2004) passes away 2 weeks after the opening of Crossing Country. The brothers, including James Iyuna, had exhibited together over 25 March – 24 April 2004 at Aboriginal and Pacific Art, Sydney, in Kokok: Older Brothers from the Kurulk Clan.
Mawurndjul participates in the group show Maningrida Burial Poles at Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London.
Another print workshop is held in November. Mawurndjul and Lindjuwanga make a suite of prints for the first public exhibition of Maningrida works on paper, titled Etchings from Milmilngkan, and held at Aboriginal and Pacific Art, Sydney, 2–18 December.
John Mawurndjul painting a lorrkkon titled Mardayin at the future bookshop of the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, September 2005. Photograph: Ianna Andreadis
John Mawurndjul painting a lorrkkon titled Mardayin at the future bookshop of the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, September 2005. Photograph: Ianna Andreadis
Mawurndjul spends 2 weeks in Paris working at the Musée du Quai Branly to paint a lorrkkon (hollow log) on site. The lorrkkon is constructed with custom-curved timber in 2 parts, which encase a concrete column, and complements the application of his bark painting to 100 square metres of the museum’s ceiling. Mawurndjul appears on French television during his stay.
Over 21 September 2005 – 29 January 2006, the retrospective rarrk: John Mawurndjul – Journey through Time in Northern Australia is held at the Museum Tinguely, Basel. Curated by Bernhard Lüthi, Christian Kaufmann and Tiriki Onus, in close association with Maningrida Arts and Culture and the art centre team, headed by Arts Director Apolline Kohen, the exhibition is opened with a 2-day symposium. The show includes work from the MCA Collection – the bark paintings Ancestral Spirit Beings Collecting Honey (1985–1987) and Nawarramulmul (Shooting Star Spirit) (1988) – and from the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, collection – the 2002 bark painting Billabong at Milmilngkan and Mimih Spirit (1992). The exhibition garners significant media attention, with Mawurndjul dubbed a “modern master” by the Sydney Morning Herald.28 A catalogue accompanies the show, with contributions by Jon Altman, Kaufmann, Kohen, Philippe Peltier, Judith Ryan and Luke Taylor, among others.
On 22 May a portrait of Mawurndjul in Paris graces the cover of TIME magazine, ahead of the June opening of the Musée du Quai Branly. Mawurndjul attends the inauguration of the museum’s Australian Indigenous Art Commission, curated by Hetti Perkins and Brenda L Croft. The commission features site-specific installations by Mawurndjul, Paddy Nyunkuny Bedford (Gija, circa 1922–2007), Ningura Napurrula (Pintupi, circa 1938–2013), Lena Nyadbi (Gija, born 1936), Michael Riley (Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi, 1960–2004), Judy Watson (Waanyi, born 1959), Tommy Watson (Pitjantjatjara, circa 1935–2017) and Gulumbu Yunupingu (Gumatj, circa 1945–2012).
The Art Gallery of New South Wales releases the documentary Conversations with Australian Artists: Connecting Flights, featuring an episode on Mawurndjul’s work. The film documents his time in Sydney for the 2004 exhibition Crossing Country and in Paris for the development of the Musée du Quai Branly commission. Mawurndjul discusses the work of balanda artists in the film: “We are comparable to balanda (non-Aboriginal) artists of high standing. I’ve seen the outside style of many balanda artists. And I look and think, ‘Yes, this is very good.’ Our technical styles are both of a high standard … Balanda also paint things they have dreamt. They paint their Djang too. I’ve seen their sacred sites. I’ve seen the sacred places of balanda and the artworks depicting them.”29
Over 15 July – 5 August, Mawurndjul participates in a group show of work from Maningrida at Raft Artspace, Darwin.
Jon Altman and Apolline Kohen curate the survey exhibition Mumeka to Milmilngkan: Innovation in Kurulk Art, which is held at the ANU Drill Hall Gallery in Canberra over 2 November – 17 December. The exhibition features more than 60 bark paintings created by the extended clan descendants of Anchor Kulunba. Mawurndjul is represented by nearly 20 artworks, including one collaborative bark made with Kay Lindjuwanga.
The Australian Government decrees outstations unviable, withdrawing support for new communities and redirecting funds to towns. This follows the “Beyond Conspicuous Compassion” speech delivered by the Minister for Indigenous Affairs Amanda Vanstone to the Australia and New Zealand School of Government, in which she referred to Aboriginal people living in outstations as condemned to “cultural museums”. In a catalogue essay for the Mumeka to Milmilngkan exhibition, Altman argues that this decision is “at loggerheads with the aspirations of many Kuninjku’ as it ‘ignores the impact that such recentralisation might have on a nationally important and internationally recognised arts movement”.30
John Mawurndjul, Maningrida, circa 2005. Image courtesy of Annandale Galleries, Sydney. Photograph: Bill Gregory
Kay Lindjuwanga and John Mawurndjul, Maningrida, circa 2005. Image courtesy of Annandale Galleries, Sydney. Photograph: Bill Gregory
The Northern Territory National Emergency Response, referred to as the Intervention, is implemented by the Australian Government, resulting in the abolition of both the permit system and the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme in Maningrida. The Intervention impacts on all Aboriginal people in remote communities across the NT.
Over 6–10 June, Mawurndjul’s work is presented at the Cornice Venice International Art Fair by Melbourne-based William Mora Galleries. The exhibition includes bark paintings and lorrkkon (hollow logs).
Over 21 September – 7 October, Mawurndjul participates in the group show Rarrk – London, presented by Josh Lilley Fine Art at the Barge House on South Bank, London.
The inaugural National Indigenous Art Triennial is held at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, over 13 October 2007 – 10 February 2008. Titled Culture Warriors and curated by Brenda L Croft, the exhibition features more than 30 artists and tours nationally. Participating artists are represented with work made in the last 3 years, and Mawurndjul exhibits 3 lorrkkon and 3 bark paintings, all focusing on Mardayin themes.
As a result of the global financial crisis, sales from Maningrida Arts and Culture begin to fall, continuing to decline dramatically over the next 4 years. Apolline Kohen leaves MAC, along with several long-serving artworkers. Over the next few years, as a series of art advisors undertake work at MAC (including Deborah Reich, Jennifer Sutton, Steve and Brenda Westley, Lucy Bond-Sharp and Louise McBride), the art centre faces many challenges, from financial difficulties and disruption in staff continuity, to changing policy circumstances.
In honour of his contribution to contemporary art, and as the first Aboriginal artist to win the Clemenger Contemporary Art Award, Mawurndjul becomes a Life Member of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Mawurndjul’s work features prominently in the catalogue Beyond Sacred: Recent Painting from Australia’s Remote Aboriginal Communities in the Collection of Colin and Elizabeth Laverty. A second edition is published in 2011.
Around this time, Mawurndjul’s mother Mary Marabamba (1938–2009) passes away.
The retrospective John Mawurndjul: Survey 1979–2009 is held at the ANU Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra, over 16 April – 24 May. Curated by Apolline Kohen, the exhibition includes more than 50 works, showing a range of Mawurndjul’s subjects in bark painting and printmaking over 3 decades, and is opened by Hetti Perkins. A catalogue accompanies the show, with essays by Jon Altman, Kohen and Luke Taylor.
Edited by Claus Volkenandt and Christian Kaufmann, the publication Between Indigenous Australia and Europe: John Mawurndjul is published by Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra. It includes essays by Altman, Sally Butler, Kohen, Howard Morphy, Judith Ryan, Taylor and Paul SC Taçon. The book is launched at the ANU Drill Hall Gallery during the opening of John Mawurndjul: Survey 1979–2009.
On 10 September at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Mawurndjul is awarded the Melbourne Art Foundation Artist Award. The Chair of the Melbourne Art Foundation, Bill Nuttall, presents the award. Lindjuwanga travels to the award ceremony with her husband and Jon Altman delivers a speech in honour of Mawurndjul’s life and work.
Opening 18 September, the group exhibition Ochre: A Study in Materiality features Mawurndjul’s work at Short Street Gallery, Broome.
As part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in June, Mawurndjul is awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) “for service to the preservation of Indigenous culture as the foremost exponent of the rarrk visual art style”.
In October, the 3-part documentary art + soul airs on ABC Television. Written and presented by curator Hetti Perkins, art + soul focuses on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. A range of Mawurndjul’s work, from early to recent bark paintings, is included in the episode ‘home + away’; his work is also published in the accompanying book and displayed in the AGNSW exhibition of the same name, presented over 28 August 2010 – 13 June 2011.
In operation since 2004, the Maningrida Arts and Culture retail outlet in Darwin closes. A new building to house the art centre is completed in Maningrida, and MAC relocates to the site near the community airstrip in 2013.
Mawurndjul’s work features in 3 collection-based exhibitions. At the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, his 1988 bark paintings Ngalyod (Female Rainbow Serpent) and Nawarramulmul (Shooting Star Spirit) are included in Volume One: MCA Collection, curated by Glenn Barkley. The display opens 12 March.
At the Seattle Art Museum in the US, 3 bark paintings by Mawurndjul from the 2000s are included in Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan and Levi Collection. The show is curated by Pamela McClusky and held over 31 May – 2 September.
Over 13 October 2012 – 30 June 2013, Mawurndjul’s bark painting Milmilngkan (2008) is featured in Keeping Places at the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
ArtAsiaPacific magazine celebrates its 20th anniversary, inviting former editorial advisor Leon Paroissien to profile significant contemporary artists in a special feature. Paroissien selects Mawurndjul and Danie Mellor (Mamu/Ngagen/Ngajan, born 1971), focusing on Mawurndjul’s work in the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, and his international exhibitions.
Hetti Perkins and John Mawurndjul, at the opening of Earth and Sky: John Mawurndjul and Gulumbu Yunupingu, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria, 2015. Photograph: courtesy of TarraWarra Museum of Art
John Mawurndjul in conversation with Jon Altman, Murray Garde and Keith Munro in the exhibition MCA Collection: Luminous, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, 2015. Photograph: Tristan Derátz
On 8 March 2015 the bark painting Mardayin Design at Kakodbebuldi (2002) sets a new auction record for Mawurndjul’s work when it sells at triple its estimate at Deutscher and Hackett’s Laverty Collection sale in Sydney. The auction record for Mawurndjul’s work had previously been set at Joel Fine Art’s inaugural Aboriginal art auction in Melbourne on 5 June 2007, when the circa 1994 bark painting Ancestors at Milmilngkan similarly sold for triple its estimate.
After a few years’ hiatus from art-making, Mawurndjul begins to re-engage with his practice, encouraged by Andrew Blake, who works as an interim art centre manager for a period at the Maningrida art centre, assisting with staff recruitment and supporting senior artists Owen Yalandja, Seymour Wulida (Kuninjku, born 1980, son of Jimmy Njiminjuma), Mick Marrawa England (Gun-nartpa, 1965–2018, son of England Banggala) and Mawurndjul.
Mawurndjul’s work features in a series of collection-based exhibitions at state and regional galleries and museums. He travels to Sydney and Victoria for two of the exhibitions.
Curated by Natasha Bullock, MCA Collection: Luminous features 3 early bark paintings by Mawurndjul, Ancestral Spirit Beings Collecting Honey (1985–1987), Nawarramulmul (Shooting Star Spirit) (1988) and Ngalyod (Female Rainbow Serpent) (1988). The show is held over 9 March – 8 June at the MCA and Mawurndjul presents an artist’s talk in April alongside Keith Munro, Jon Altman and Murray Garde. Bullock and Munro (MCA) and Lisa Slade, representing the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), meet with Mawurndjul, Garde and Altman to confirm Mawurndjul’s interest in collaborating on an exhibition of his work across venues in Sydney and Adelaide.
On 29 March Mawurndjul attends the opening of Earth and Sky: John Mawurndjul and Gulumbu Yunupingu at TarraWarra Museum of Art in Healesville, Victoria. Curated by Hetti Perkins and presented over 28 March – 8 June, the exhibition includes Mardayin-themed works from the 2000s in public and private collections.
Drawing on existing work from the last few years, over 14 April – 23 May Annandale Galleries in Sydney presents an exhibition of Mawurndjul’s and the late John Bulunbulun’s work. The show is titled Rarrk Masters and is opened with talks by Mawurndjul, Altman and Garde.
In Melbourne over 4 April – 4 October, Mawurndjul’s work is included in the collection exhibition Indigenous Art: Moving Backwards into the Future at the National Gallery of Victoria, curated by Judith Ryan.
In Adelaide over 11 July 2015 – 17 January 2016, Mawurndjul’s collection works Namanjwarre, Saltwater Crocodile (1988), Mimih Spirit (1992) (p.262) and Billabong at Milmilngkan (2002) are featured in the AGSA exhibition Crossing Time: Highlights from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Collection, curated by Nici Cumpston.
Over 15 November 2014 – 1 November 2015, Mawurndjul’s work is included in Our spirits lie in the water at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, curated by Cara Pinchbeck.
Peter Danaja is appointed as Director of Djómi Museum. He works in this position, interpreting, promoting and facilitating the collection, until 2017, when he passes away.
Mawurndjul’s brother James Iyuna (1959–2016) passes away.
In April, Michelle Culpitt is appointed General Manager of Maningrida Arts and Culture, after having worked at the art centre as Assistant Arts Director over 2000–2005. In November, Kate O’Hara begins work as Art Centre Manager.
In May, Lisa Slade and Nici Cumpston from the Art Gallery of South Australia, along with Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, Keith Munro, Natasha Bullock and Tristan Derátz from the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, travel to Maningrida to continue the conversation with Mawurndjul about the exhibition of his work in Sydney and Adelaide.
On 5 August at the 33rd Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Art Awards, Mawurndjul is announced the winner of the Telstra Bark Painting Award for his work Lightning in the Rock (2016), the first bark he has painted in several years. On receiving the award, Mawurndjul says: “My father taught me to paint. I am a painter and I will paint until I die.”31 The award exhibition is held at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory,
Darwin, 5 August – 30 October. Mawurndjul’s portrait features on the cover of the September 2016 issue of Art Monthly Australasia and he is interviewed by Rico Adjrun for AWAYE!, ABC Radio National, broadcast 13 August.
While still operating as an arm of the Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation, Maningrida Arts and Culture re-establishes governance through an arts and culture subcommittee made up of senior cultural custodians from many of the language groups across the region. The Bawinanga Arts and Culture Subcommittee oversees the issues affecting Traditional Cultural Knowledge and Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property, including the art centre, women’s centre, culture office, Djómi Museum, rock art, sacred sites, song, dance and other cultural expressions. Mawurndjul plays a key senior role on this committee.
John Mawurndjul, 2016, Photograph: Nici Cumpston
Murray Garde, John Mawurndjul, Ananais Jawulba and Kay Lindjuwanga at Milmilngkan outstation, Arnhem Land, Northern Terrtory, 2016. Photograph: Tristan Derátz
In July, Nici Cumpston from the Art Gallery of South Australia, and Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, Keith Munro, Natasha Bullock and Jean-Pierre Chabrol from the MCA travel to Maningrida to continue developing with Mawurndjul the exhibition of his work in Sydney and Adelaide.
Over 17 November 2017 – 2 April 2018, Mawurndjul’s work is exhibited in Germany. Curated by Franchesca Cubillo, Indigenous Australia: Masterworks from the National Gallery of Australia is held at me Collectors Room, Berlin, and features an early 1990s bark painting by Mawurndjul alongside a 2006 work.
In November, Mawurndjul’s mother Mary Wurrdjedje (circa 1927–2017) passes away.
In late 2017 to early 2018, James Tylor (Kaurna/Māori) and Shemiah Prudence (Burarra) audit the Djómi Museum collection, producing an object database. The collection now holds 795 items, including works by father and son, Anchor Kulunba and Mawurndjul, and leading Maningrida artists such as John Bulunbulun, Wally Mandarrk (Dangbon/Kune, circa 1915–1987), Crusoe Kuningbal, Mick Kubarkku, Peter Marralwanga, England Banggala, Jack Wunuwun (Djinang, 1930–1991), Bob Burruwal, Lena Djamarrayku and Lena Yarinkura. Luke Taylor is commissioned to report on Djómi Museum’s significance, interviewing people from the 12 Maningrida language groups that the museum represents, with the help of Michelle Culpitt, Derek Kuningbal Carter and Prudence. Taylor mentions Mawurndjul’s bark painting Thylacine (circa 1995) in his report as a key collection work.
John Mawurndjul in Berlin, March 2018. Photograph: Nici Cumpston
Nici Cumpston, John Mawurndjul and Murray Garde in Berlin, March 2018. Photograph: Laura Thompson
John Mawurndjul and Murray Garde, Berlin, March 2018. Photograph: Nici Cumpston
In March, Mawurndjul attends the National Gallery of Australia exhibition Indigenous Australia: Masterworks at the Collectors Room, Berlin. He gives an artist’s talk on his work, translated by Murray Garde.
On 27 May, Mawurndjul is announced as the recipient of the Red Ochre Award, presented by the Australia Council for the Arts for outstanding lifetime achievement.
The retrospective John Mawurndjul: I am the old and the new is held at the MCA over 6 July – 23 September before travelling to the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, for display over 11 October 2018 – 28 January 2019 as part of the TARNANTHI Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art. Curated by Clothilde Bullen, Natasha Bullock, Nici Cumpston and Lisa Slade, with the support of Keith Munro, the exhibition and catalogue is the culmination of 4 years of research. With loans from major state, national, private and overseas collections, alongside new commissions from the artist, I am the old and the new represents the trajectory of Mawurndjul’s decades-long art practice.
Currently living in Maningrida, Mawurndjul is making plans to relocate his family to their outstation at Milmilngkan. He explains: “I have camped one year straight in Maningrida. I’ve been painting a little bit. Maningrida, Milmilngkan, Maningrida, Milmilngkan, back and forward. I’m happy when I think about Milmilngkan, always. It’s really good bush at my outstation. I’ll have bikbik (pig) or nganabbarru (buffalo). I want to camp at Milmilngkan but I get stuck here. I’m happy when I am at Milmilngkan, painting. In the afternoon I’ll cut dolobbo (bark) and carry it. I want to stop at Milmilngkan straight, one or two years.”32
Genevieve O'Callaghan acknowledges and thanks John Mawurndjul, Kay Lindjuwanga and Maningrida Arts and Culture for their assistance in writing these selected biographical notes. The notes rely heavily on the extensive and long-term research undertaken by Jon Altman and Luke Taylor, and draw on many published sources, in particular Crossing Country: The Alchemy of Western Arnhem Land Art (2004), rarrk: John Mawurndjul – Journey through Time in Northern Australia (2005) and Between Indigenous Australia and Europe: John Mawurndjul (2009). The author thanks Jon Altman, Michelle Culpitt, Murray Garde and Luke Taylor for their additional advice, and also Anthony Bourke, Natasha Bullock, Kelli Cole, Coby Edgar, Helen Hansen, Jonathan Jones, Apolline Kohen, Diane Moon, Bernice Murphy, Cara Pinchbeck, Samantha Pizzi, Gabriella Roy, Judith Ryan, Manya Sellers, Gloria Strzelecki and Margie West for their assistance.
The richly illustrated 400-page book contains a comprehensive overview of John Mawurndjul’s practice by Hetti Perkins, one of Australia’s great scholars of Aboriginal art; a detailed and illustrated biographical history by writer Genevieve O’Callaghan; an interview between the artist and linguist Dr Murray Garde; and other essays. Designed and developed by the MCA Design Studio in collaboration with the artist, the book mirrors the structure of the exhibition with over 160 full-colour image plates grouped by place, along with rarely seen images of the artist. John Mawurndjul: I am the old and the newcelebrates language and is punctuated with the artist’s words in Kuninjku, translated into English. Available for $59.95.
1. Language groups and biographical information for artists are gathered from sources listed in the bibliography and correspondence with J Altman and M Culpitt.
2. L Taylor, “Painted energy: John Mawurndjul and the negotiation of aesthetics in Kuninjku bark painting” in C Volkenandt and C Kaufmann (eds), Between Indigenous Australia and Europe: John Mawurndjul, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 2009, p 39.
3. L Taylor, “John Mawurndjul” in Tradition Today: Indigenous Art in Australia, revised edition, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2013, p 86.
4. J Altman, “A brief social history of Kuninjku art and the market” in Volkenandt and Kaufmann (editors), 2009, op. cit., p 22.
5. J Altman, “Anchor Kulunba: the artist at work” (photographic essay) in H Perkins (editor), Crossing Country: The Alchemy of Western Arnhem Land Art, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2004, pp 156–159.
6. J Mawurndjul quoted in M Garde, “Ngalyod in my head: the art of John Mawurndjul” in John Mawurndjul, John Bulunbulun, exhibition catalogue, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, 1997, np.
7. L Taylor, “Fire in the water: inspiration from Country” in Perkins (editor), 2004, op. cit., p 122.
8. J Mawurndjul quoted in J Ryan, “Bark painting: a singular aesthetic” in C Kaufmann and Museum Tinguely, Basel (editors), rarrk: John Mawurndjul – Journey through Time in Northern Australia, exhibition catalogue, Crawford House Publishing, Adelaide, 2005, p 178.
9. L Taylor, 2009, op. cit., p 34.
10. J Altman, “From Mumeka to Basel: John Mawurndjul’s artistic odyssey” in Kaufmann and Museum Tinguely (editors), 2005, op. cit., p 33.
11. J Altman, “The invention of Kurulk art” in J Altman (editor), Mumeka to Milmilngkan: Innovation in Kurulk Art, exhibition catalogue, ANU Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra, 2006, p 19.
12. H Perkins, “Crossing Country: the alchemy of western Arnhem Land art” in Perkins (editor), 2004, op. cit., p 17.
13. J Ryan, “John Mawurndjul: abstract vision”, Art & Australia, vol. 42, no. 1, spring 2004, p 67.
14. D Moon, “John Mawurndjul” in N Bullock (editor), MCA Collection Handbook, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, 2016, p 234.
15. ibid.
16. L Taylor, “Painting Djang: art and inspiration in western Arnhem Land” in H Perkins and M West (editors), One sun one moon: Aboriginal Art in Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, p 88.
17. L Taylor, 2009, op. cit., p 39.
18. Moon, 2016, op. cit., p 234.
19. K Lindjuwanga quoted in “From the artists” in Altman (editor), 2006, op. cit., p 13.
20. S Smith, “Fine landscape art captured on canvas”, Courier Mail, 18 August 1994, np.
21. F Wright, “Passion, rich collectors and the export dollar: the selling of Aboriginal art overseas”, Artlink, vol. 18, no. 4, December 1998, p 21.
22. J McDonald, “The fine art of bridge-building”, Sydney Morning Herald, 27 September 1997, p 165.
23. J Mawurndjul, M Garde and A Kohen, “John Mawurndjul: ‘My head is full up with ideas’” in AC Ducreux, A Kohen and F Salmon (editors), In the heart of Arnhem Land: Myth and the Making of Contemporary Aboriginal Art, exhibition catalogue, Musée de l’Hotel-Dieu, Paris, 2001, p 57.
24 L Taylor, 2004, op. cit., p 126.
25 S Smee, “No-one needs to say sorry”, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 May 2000, p 19.
26. Quoted in H Perkins, Earth and Sky: John Mawurndjul and Gulumbu Yunupingu, exhibition catalogue, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Victoria, 2015, p 67.
27. J Mawurndjul, Clemenger Contemporary Art Award speech, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 17 September 2003, translated by M Garde, in Ryan, 2005, op. cit., p 65.
28. A Bennie, “Modern master”, Spectrum, Sydney Morning Herald, 24–25 September 2005, pp 34–35.
29. J Mawurndjul quoted in Conversations with Australian Artists: Connecting Flights, vol. 2, video recording, 14:51 minutes, Public Programs Department of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2006, producer Y Kronenburg, director R Herbert, assistant producer G Alexander, 9:43, 11:45 minutes.
30. Altman, 2006, op. cit., p 32.
31. J Mawurndjul translated by V Rostron; from correspondence with M Culpitt, 11 March 2018.
32. J Mawurndjul quoted from a discussion with M Culpitt, 28 March 2018.