Marrnyula Mununggurr facts for kids

Marrnyula Mununggurr, born in 1964, is a talented Aboriginal Australian artist from the Djapu clan of the Yolngu people. She is famous for her beautiful paintings on bark and hollow logs, using natural colors called ochres. She also creates amazing printmakings, including linoleum and screen prints, and makes wood carvings.

Marrnyula Mununggurr at Binydjarrŋa (Daliwuy Bay), December 2018.

About Marrnyula Mununggurr

Marrnyula Mununggurr was born in North East Arnhem Land, a special place in Australia. Her parents, Djutadjuta Mununggurr and Nonggirrnga Marawili, were also well-known artists. She grew up in Wäṉḏawuy, her family's homeland, which is a freshwater area inland. The Djapu' clan's special animal, or totem, is the Mäṉa, which is a shark. Even though Marrnyula does not have her own children, she lovingly raised her three nieces and nephews after her brother passed away.

Family of Artists

Marrnyula comes from a family of talented artists. Her grandfather on her father's side was Wonggu Mununggurr, a leader and artist of the Djapu clan. Her grandfather on her mother's side was Mundukul Marawili, a leader and artist from the Madarrpa people.

Marrnyula's Art Journey

Marrnyula first wanted to be a teacher and even taught at Wäṉḏawuy. However, she decided to pursue a different path. Since the 1980s, she has worked at the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre in Yirrkala, which is a famous art center in Arnhem Land. From 1995 to 2011, she was the main printmaker, trainer, and manager at the Yirrkala Print Space. She learned many skills from a master printmaker named Basil Hall.

Learning from Her Parents

Before becoming a printmaker, Marrnyula helped her parents create their artworks. Her father taught her how to prepare bark for painting and how to paint her clan's special designs. While she was learning to paint on bark, she also taught school children about the Djapu' clan designs. Marrnyula and her mother often helped her father with his bark paintings. One of these, called Djapu’–Gälpu Ties, is now shown in the Madayin Exhibit.

A Unique Female Artist

In the past, bark painting was mostly done by men. Marrnyula is special because she is one of the few female bark painters. She is known for keeping the traditional paintings and designs of her people alive. For example, in her work Djapu from 2013, she used patterns and techniques from her father and grandfather's paintings. Her father encouraged her from a young age to paint Djapu' designs, giving her a brush, white clay, and bark to start her journey.

Working with Other Artists

Marrnyula has worked with her mother, Nonggirrnga Marawili, to create paintings of the Djapu clan design. These works were shown in 2007 at the Annandale Gallery.

She also participated in a big art show in Sydney in 2009, called Making it New: Focus on Contemporary Australian Art. One of her bark paintings, Love me Safely, was part of an exhibit in Canberra from 1994 to 1995. Through her art, Marrnyula has helped raise awareness about health issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The Blue Mud Bay Project

Marrnyula was one of five artists from Arnhem Land chosen for the Djalkiri: We are Standing on their names: Blue Mud Bay project (2009-2010). This project celebrated the Yolngu people of the Yilpara and Blue Mud Bay region. It honored their ancestors through songs, dances, paintings, and other art forms. For this project, Marrnyula painted her mother’s design of the sailing cloth, which is connected to Yilpara and the sea rights ceremony of Blue Mud Bay.

Ganybu and Climate Change

In 2015, Marrnyula had an exhibition in Melbourne called Ganybu, which featured 252 small bark paintings. The patterns on these paintings show the fishtrap that caught Mäṉa, the ancestral shark, and the land she comes from. The paintings show the billabongs (waterholes), ridges, and high banks of Wäṉḏawuy using natural ochre colors. These artworks were later bought by the National Gallery of Victoria. In 2019, Marrnyula created another large artwork with 297 small bark paintings for the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection. This work was shown at the 2019 Tarnanthi festival in Adelaide.

Marrnyula also cares deeply about climate change. She helps raise awareness through her art, like in her exhibition Zero Metres Above Sea Level, which has been shown in Sydney since 2016. Her work helps environmental experts understand how climate change affects communities.

She continues to be a respected printmaker at Yirrkala Printspace.

Marrnyula's Unique Style

Marrnyula's print works often feature detailed cross-hatching patterns on bark. These patterns represent the freshwaters and rivers of her homeland, showing the network of waterways, ridges, and hills. This design also looks like the fish traps that women traditionally weave to catch fish.

Puzzle Work Paintings

As Marrnyula got older, she started to have trouble moving around easily. This led her to create installations made of many small bark paintings put together. She calls them "puzzle work paintings." She made her first one from small pieces of bark left by other artists. Since her Ganybu exhibition in 2015, Marrnyula has been known for these innovative installations of many small barks. Each small bark shows her clan's design, which is the fish trap that caught Mäṉa (the ancestral shark) at Wäṉḏawuy. The spaces between the small barks on the gallery wall also form a grid, like the fish trap. Marrnyula said that creating smaller bark paintings was her own idea, different from the traditional large bark paintings.

Hollow Log Paintings

Besides her puzzle work style, Marrnyula also paints larrakitj, which are hollow logs. She paints designs she inherited from her grandfather, Wonggu Mununggurr. While she stays true to her clan's designs, she also makes her works unique and different from other artists.

Marrnyula's art often includes themes of spirits and traditional laws, showing how important the landscape is to her community. She often creates art inspired by her clan's totem, the Mäṉa, which are ancestral sharks. The journeys of these sharks connect people from different clans. These designs appear in her puzzle work bark paintings and her hollow log paintings. From 2014 to 2015, she worked on a larrakitj installation also called Ganybu. In this work, the lines represent the fish trap in the shark songline, and the diagonal lines represent water, which is important to the Djapu’ people.

The Madayin Exhibition

One of Marrnyula's famous puzzle work paintings is part of Madayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala. This exhibition was put together by the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection in partnership with the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre. The exhibition helps new audiences learn about the sacred stories and art of Yirrkala. It includes many songlines, like the Mäṉa songline.

The Mäṉa Songline

The Mäṉa is a songline that connects many Dhuwa clan stories. Marrnyula's artwork, Djapu’ Clan Design, shows the end of Mäṉa's journey at Wäṉḏawuy, Marrnyula's homeland. In this story, the shark ancestor sees hunters from the Gupa-Djapu’ clan trying to catch fish by poisoning them. The hunters tried to trap Mäṉa with a woven fish trap, but he broke free, and the force of his escape created a bend in the river.

Djapu’ Clan Design is a very large artwork made of 299 smaller bark paintings. These smaller paintings form a big grid, and each one also shows a grid design, reminding us of the fish trap in the story. In this piece, the white clay designs represent fresh water, and the black designs in the middle show muddy water from the shark thrashing. You can see the shark escaping near the top left of the puzzle work painting. The river from the songlines is a real river at Wäṉḏawuy. The grid designs in this artwork are her ceremonial designs. She uses a special cross-hatching technique to make the water look shimmering.

Awards and Recognition

Marrnyula Mununggurr has received several awards for her amazing artwork:

• 1994: Best Painting, Barunga Festival Art Awards.
• 2002: Honourable Mention, Michael Long Testimonial Art Award.
• 2020: Telstra Bark Painting Prize, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.

Important Exhibitions

Marrnyula's art has been shown in many important exhibitions:

• 1994, 1996, 1997, 2008, 2010: National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
• 1999-2001: Saltwater: Yirrkala Bark Paintings of Sea Country, shown in various galleries across Australia.
• 2009: Making it New: Focus on Contemporary Australian Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney.
• 2010: 17th Biennale of Sydney — The Beauty of Distance, MCA, Sydney.
• 2010: Djalkiri; We are standing on their names, Nomad Art, 24-Hour Art, Darwin Festival.
• 2015: Ganybu, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne.
• 2016-17: Who's Afraid of Colour?, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
• 2019-2020: The Inside World: Contemporary Aboriginal Australian Memorial Poles, shown in several museums in the USA.
• 2019: Tarnanthi, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
• 2024: Madayin, The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA.

Art Collections

Marrnyula Mununggurr's artworks are held in many important collections, including:

• Art Gallery of New South Wales
• Australian Museum
• Flinders University Art Museum
• National Gallery of Australia
• Museum and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory
• Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia
• National Maritime Museum
• Sydney Opera House
• National Museum of Australia
• University of Woolongong
• Singapore Art Gallery
• Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery