Wukun Wanambi Explained

Wukun Wanambi
Birth Place:Gurka'wuy, East Arnhem NT, Australia
Death Place:Darwin, Northern Territory
Nationality:Australian
Known For:Artist
Father:Mithili Wanambi

Wukun Wanambi (1962 – 1 May 2022) was an Australian Yolngu painter, filmmaker and curator of the Marrakulu clan of northeastern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory.

Biography

Wanambi was born in Gurka'wuy as the oldest son in his family. His father, Mithili Wanambi, was an esteemed clan leader and renowned painter. Although he was born to a family of artists, he wished to be a politician growing up.[1]

When Mithili died in 1981, sacred clan designs could no longer be painted because no one had the authority to paint them anymore. It was not until 1997 that Djunggayi (caretakers and preservers of clan knowledge) taught Wanambi the designs. Wanambi then began painting and created for the Saltwater Country exhibition, re-introducing motifs that had not been painted since his father's death.[2] From this point on, he became a highly renowned artist, dedicated to honouring his father and ancestry through his art.

He died in Darwin on 1 May 2022.[3] [4] [5]

Artwork

While Wanambi was an artist who used many different media, he is best known as a painter and sculptor who works with natural pigments on bark and traditional memorial poles, or larrakitj.[6] He also made prints at the Bulka-Larrrŋgay Mulka Centre.[7] He was the Cultural Director of the Mulka Project, the media centre in Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka.[8] Through this position, he advised individuals on what they have the clan authority to depict in film. However, he was also a video artist himself, working to bridge generations by creating archival art that reconstructed ceremonial documentary archives.[9] Rather than solidifying binaries of past and present, traditional and modern, Wanambi aimed to show the interconnectedness of time as well as the global network through the recording of ceremonial practices.

Using both his artwork and his involvement with the Mulka Project, Wanambi advocated for the agency and involvement of Aboriginal peoples to cultivate a true understanding of Aboriginal cultures.[10]

Curatorial practice

Wukun Wanambi has served as the Cultural Director at The Mulka Project since its inception in 2007. In 2014, he created his first multimedia artwork, Nhina, Nhäma Ga Ŋäma (Sit, Look and Listen), inspired by the cultural footage archive he manages. In 2019, he exhibited an expanded interactive version at Tarnanthi AGSA. Most recently, in 2020, he collaborated with the Mulka Team on Watami Manikay, now displayed at the AGNSW.[11] In 2017, Wanambi travelled to the United States to join the curatorial team for the exhibition Madayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Art from Yirrkala.[12] This was Wanambi's first time working as a curator.[13] In 2018 he served as curatorial consultant on the exhibition MIwatj at the La Trobe Art Institute.[14] Wanambi believed in incorporating Aboriginal peoples at all levels of art exhibition, and his curatorial work with the Maḏayin exhibition project reflected his desire for Yolngu culture to be depicted the Yolngu way.

Awards

Collections

Significant exhibitions

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Wanambi, Wukun. "A vision beneath the surface". Retrieved 2021-5-4.
  2. Ellersdorfer. Johanna Marie . Sloggett . Robyn . Wanambi. Wukun. 2012-02-25. Bark paintings and orchids: a technical discussion of bark paintings from Arnhem Land. AICCM Bulletin . en . 33 . 1 . 30–40 . 10.1179/bac.2012.33.1.005 . 59953461 . 1034-4233.
  3. News: Burke . Kelly . ‘A visionary in many ways’: art world mourns loss of Yolngu artist Mr Wanambi . 18 November 2023 . The Guardian.
  4. Web site: Mr Wanambi . Design & Art Australia Online . 18 November 2023.
  5. The date of death in this Sydney Morning Herald article (4 May), previously cited in this article, is incorrect: Web site: Latimore . Jack . 2022-05-04 . Prominent Yolngu clan leader and artist Mr Wanambi dies . 2022-05-04 . . en .
  6. SCULTHORPE. GAYE. Same Objects, Different Stories: Exhibiting 'Indigenous Australia'. 2017. Journal of Museum Ethnography. 30. 79–103. 44841228. 0954-7169.
  7. Web site: Curtin. Travis. Sun Cycles and River Flows. 2021-03-18. La Trobe Art Institute.
  8. Conor . Liz . Lydon . Jane . 2011-06-01 . Double take: reappraising the colonial archive. Journal of Australian Studies. en. 35. 2. 137–143. 10.1080/14443058.2011.562229. 145133835 . 1444-3058.
  9. Lane, Robert Lazarus (2015). "WUKUN WANAMBI'S NHINA, NHÄMA, GA NGÄMA (SIT, LOOK, AND, LISTEN)" in Indigenous Archives: The Making and Unmaking of Aboriginal Art, edited by Darren Jorgenson and Ian McLean. UWA Publishing. pp. 227-249.
  10. Deveson. Philippa. 2011-06-01. The agency of the subject: Yolngu involvement in the Yirrkala Film Project. Journal of Australian Studies. en. 35. 2. 153–164. 10.1080/14443058.2011.553839. 143665922. 1444-3058.
  11. Web site: About – The Mulka Project BUKU-LARRŊGAY MULKA CENTRE . 2024-05-05 . en-US.
  12. Web site: Origins . 2023-03-03 . Kluge-Ruhe: Madayin . en-US.
  13. Book: Cumpston and Slade, Nici and Lisa. Tarnanthi. Art Gallery of South Australia. 2019. Adelaide. 24–47.
  14. Web site: University. La Trobe. Publications. 2021-05-07. www.latrobe.edu.au. en.
  15. Wukun Wanambi Curriculum Vitae." Buku-Larrnggay Mulka: 2008.
  16. Web site: Destiny Destiny . 2023-03-03 . Kluge-Ruhe: Madayin . en-US.
  17. Web site: The Inside World: Contemporary Aboriginal Australian Memorial Poles from the Debra and Dennis Scholl Collection. 2021-05-07. Nevada Museum of Art. en.
  18. Web site: Madayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala . University of Virginia. 26 April 2024.
  19. Web site: Maḏayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala . The Fralin Museum of Art . 2 February 2024 . 26 April 2024.

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