Yirrkala Arts Centre and Mulka Project

Yirrkala drawings - Yirrkala now

An insight into the history, legacies and continuing strength of cultural production of the community at Yirrkala and the integral role played by the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre.

Product Profile Yirrkala Set – Natural Pigments of Australia

Derivans CEO Steven Patterson talks about the research and Development that went into creating the new colours in the Matisse Structure Yirrkala Set
About
For many indigenous artists, a connection to the land is not only part of their creative spirit, but also their identity. Their natural and cultural landscape is composed of man erent types of unique land and rock formations, all changing in response to the intensity of the harsh sunlight. Artists have always used these rocks to create pigments for both artworks and body adornment. The rich reds, yellow oxides and textured whites are all formulated from the immediate environment. These pigments are literally gifts from the earth and quickly became part of the
Stretching 700kms to the east of the Northern Territory’s capital of Darwin is Arnhem Land. It neighbours Kakadu National Park and is home to many indigenous Australians who have cared for this country for over 40,000 years. Some of the earliest forms of art in the world can be found in Arnhem Land and many Aboriginal artists in the Northern Territory continue to embody this creative spirit using both traditional and modern techniques.
Yirrkala Aboriginal Community is approximately 15km from the township of Nhulunbuy, in Australia’s Northern Territory, and is home to a unique indigenous community owned art centre, The Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre.In consultation with the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre, Derivan has created four acrylic paint colours using naturally sourced rock formations plentiful to the Arnhem Land region. The pigments were hand collected by artists working for the centre from age old quarries several hours drive from Yirrkala.
All colours are available in a structure formulation and they are made to the same high standards of all Matisse products and completely compatible with other Matisse Acrylic ranges of paints and Matisse Mediums.

Yirrkala artists In Gallery

Yirrkala artists, Barayuwa Munungurr and Bengitj Munungurr visited the Australian Museum and Bengitj tells us about her son. Barayuwa's arts practice.

Buku-Larrnggay Mulka keeps culture strong in Yirrkala

In the Yolngu community of Yirrkala the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre and Museum serves as a school where young people can learn about their culture while they develop skills

APT8 / In Conversation with Gunybi Ganambarr

Gunybi Ganambarr is joined by Yinimala Guman for a ceremonial performance relating to his work in APT8, followed by an artist conversation with Will Stubbs, Coordinator, Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre in Yirrkala, and Diane Moon, Curator, Indigenous Fibre Art, QAGOMA.

Gunybi Ganambarr is a Yolngu artist who was born into the small Ngaymil clan in Yirrkala in north-east Arnhem Land. Yolngu artists are particularly known for their contemporary translation of sacred designs on barks and larrakitj (memorial poles) for a broader audience. Ganambarr has extended this practice to incorporate innovative materials with links to mining and industry, forming a reflection on the erosion of Aboriginal land rights. His incised steel and galvanised iron wall works are highly reflective, contrasting with three works created from rubber conveyor belts, a reference to the removal of minerals from Yolngu land through the recently decommissioned Nhulunbuy bauxite mine and alumina refinery. Ganambarr's mentors have included renowned artists Djambawa Marawili and Wanyubi Marika. His work exemplifies the confidence and cultural assertion of a new, experimental Yolngu art, while remaining firmly guided and influenced by elders and senior artists.

The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT) is the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art's flagship exhibition focused on the work of Asia, the Pacific and Australia. The 8th edition emphasised the role of performance in recent art, with live actions, video, kinetic art, figurative painting and sculpture exploring the use of the human form to express cultural, social and political ideas, and the central role of artists in articulating experiences specific to their localities.

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The 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT8) / Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Brisbane Australia / 21 November 2015 – 10 April 2016

#QAGOMA #APT8

Source: QAGOMA APT Archive

Songspirals Book: Wuymirri, the Whale (@Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Art Centre)

Djerrkŋu Yunupiŋu, a leader of the Gumatj clan shares her own version of Wuymirri at the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Art Centre, Yirrkala, 2017.

Video from Songspirals: Sharing Women’s Wisdom of Country Through Songlines, available at Booktopia:

Buku Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre Export Award Finalist 2016

Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre national finalist in the 54th Australian Export Awards (Creative Industries category).
For more information visit exportawards.gov.au

Balnhdhurr – A Lasting Impression

Join Yirrkala printmaker’s Bawu Gurruwiwi, Bitharr Maymuru and Munuy’ngu Marika as they introduce their Art Centre and Print Space in Miwatj Country.
Video produced by the Mulka Project, Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre and Artback NT.

Camera: Gutingarra Yunupingu, Sound: Mundatjnggu Mununggurr and Voice over by Bulmiri Yunupingu
In a remote corner of Arnhem Land sits Yirrkala Print Space, where, for over twenty years, the ancient craft of printmaking has not only survived, but prospered. A celebratory exhibition of this print space, Balnhdhurr – A Lasting Impression is presented by Artback NT in association with Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre.

Balnhdhurr – A Lasting Impression is a vibrant acknowledgement of the creative energies, talent and commitment of generations of Yolngu artists who have utilised and pushed the boundaries of such a medium to share significant cultural and historical stories.

‘Printmaking is a guild craft and there are very few professional printmakers in the country so it is a surprise that a hotspot of this very technical and demanding skill is in remote Yirrkala in Far East Arnhem Land and has been for twenty years’, said Will Stubbs, co-ordinator of Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre.

Louise Partos, Artback NT’s Executive Officer, agreed adding ‘Balnhdhurr is also an opportunity to celebrate the work of Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre, one of Australia’s most extraordinarily influential and dynamic art centres dedicated to the maintenance and preservation of Yolngu law and culture’.

With works from 50 artists, this exhibition includes prints that are historically significant. The Berndt Etchings series talks about the Berndt Crayon Drawings of Yirrkala, produced by the artists’ predecessors in 1947, while String Figure Prints are a response to another archaeological collection from 1948. Pieces in Balnhdhurr also reveal the significant impact the introduction of bright acrylics had on artists, which allowed them to explore a whole new genre of artistic storytelling that became a joyous explosion of colour and expression.

“Every print has to be the design of the artist’s own clan or connecting clan. The design has to be done very carefully so as not to mix them up, and to understand their story. We have to talk about it with other people in that clan, so when the design is printed there is no problem. It’s a similar idea to the traditional designs used in the bark paintings and the wood carving, but in printmaking we get the direction from our elders to design the image of the outside story only. In the workshop a lot of Yolngu come and watch what we do in the print studio so they can understand the process.”

Marrnyula Mununggurr and Mundul Wunungmurra Mununggurr Balnhdhurr is a coming together of cultures and time, providing an opportunity for a wider audience to recognise the accomplishments of a sustainable, functional and thriving print studio operating in an isolated landscape. Yirrkala Print Space began in 1995 when a purpose built area was designed to host a printing press. With over 800 editions by 137 produced through the studio since then, Yirrkala Print Space has become an integral and vital component of the community.

Yirrkala - Nhina Strong

Yirrkala drawings - introduction from the curator Cara Pinchback

Curator Cara Pinchbeck introduces the exhibition Yirrkala Drawings, a collaboration between the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Berndt Museum of Anthropology and Buku-Larrnggay Mulka.


12 Dec 2013 -- 23 Feb 2014

Free admission

Location:
Temporary exhibitions gallery

Songspirals Book: Wuymirri, the Whale (@Yirrkala)

Djerrkŋu Yunupiŋu, a leader of the Gumatj clan, shares her own version of Wuymirri at Yirrkala, 2017.

Video from Songspirals: Sharing Women’s Wisdom of Country Through Songlines, available at Booktopia:

Yirrkala Ebony

Escudo I x Hamlet mare

Yirrkala School-Nhina Strong- produced by Glen Heald

This song is clalled Nhina strong sung by the local children in Yirrkala CEC school many thanks to all who helped
Glen Heald Audio
Yirrkala is a well-known Aboriginal community in East Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia, 18 km south-east of the large mining town of Nhulunbuy. It has a population of about 850 people, of whom nearly all are Yolngu, and also acts as a regional centre for a further 1200 people living in surrounding indigenous homelands. There has been an indigenous community at Yirrkala throughout recorded history, Gumatj and Rirratjingu clans are the Traditional Owners of the land. It is home to a number of leading indigenous artists, whose traditional art, particularly bark painting, can be found in art galleries around the world. Their work is available to the public from the YBE art centre and the renowned Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre and Museum home of the famous Yirrkala Church Panels.
It is a traditional home of the Yidaki (didgeridoo) and some of the world's finest didgeridoos are still made at Yirrkala. The traditional Yirrkala art form of String Figures was given prominence by Frederick D. McCarthy who documented and collected many such figures (Australian Museum collection) Yirrkala played a pivotal role in the development of the relationship between indigenous and non indigenous Australians when a bark petition was created at Yirrkala in 1963 and sent to the Federal Government to protest at the Prime Minister's announcement that a parcel of their land was to be sold to a bauxite mining company. Although the petition itself was unsuccessful in the sense that the bauxite mining at Nhulunbuy went ahead as planned, it alerted non-indigenous Australians to the need for indigenous representation in such decisions and prompted a government report recommending payment of compensation, protection of sacred sites, creation of a permanent parliamentary standing committee to scrutinise developments at Yirrkala and also acknowledged the indigenous people's moral right to their lands. The Bark Petition is on display in the Parliament House in Canberra.

Mulka (to hold and protect)

A discussion with Wukun Wanambi, the cultural director of
Buku-Larrnggay’s The Mulka Project and its creative director,
Ishmael Marika, this session explores how effective digital
preservation operates when all the stages of construction and
distribution are managed within one creative continuum.
Speakers:
Wukun Wanambi (Cultural Director, The Mulka Project, Yirrkala),
Ishmael Marika (Cultural Director, The Mulka Project, Yirrkala),
Robert Lane (Grimwade Centre, University of Melbourne),
Chair: Professor Robyn Sloggett (Director, Grimwade Centre, University of Melbourne)

The Yolngu: A Pre Contact History

For Closed Captioning, please click CC in the action bar.

A pre-contact history of the Yolngu people of Northern Australia, also known as the Arnhem Land. This informative video explores the creation stores, societal structures, and pre-contact relationships of the Yolngu people.

This video is part of the EAS2101 (Colonialism and Indigenous People) course at the University of Ottawa in the Fall 2017 semester. Video by: Nolan Desjardins, Anthony Larocque, Kiera Hulett.

Visiting Yirrkala in Arnhem Land - Behind the News

We meet some kids from Yirrkala School in Arnhem Land to show us around their place. Arnhem Land is known for its tropical wilderness and beautiful beaches and it's also where the didgeridoo came from!

BTN STORY PAGE


TEACHER RESOURCES
Health and PE Yr 3 & 4, Civics and Citizenship Yr 7
Students will develop a deeper understanding of life in Arnhem Land and explore dreaming stories from the area.

Yirrkala Protests New Shire's Theft of Assets on Stateline

This segment aired on Stateline on 30 May 2008, protesting the impending removal by the new East Arnhem Shire on 1 July of several assets developed over the years by the Aboriginal Community Council and businesses. This incidentally includes housing for Mulka Project staff, so you may kiss us goodbye soon!

Aboriginal reform innovators saving their cultural reform model

These Cape York cultural leaders are reform innovators, unflinching in their dedication to restoring the social fabric of their communities. In 2019, the Qld Government, Minister Jackie Trad will scrap their family Responsibilities Commission, a successful model that gives these local leaders real authority to help families meet family obligations. It works. Help them build upon their model, a local solution changing lives and saving lives.