Nonggirrnga Marawili facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Nonggirrnga Marawili
Marawili working at the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre at Yirrkala
Born	c.1939
Died	2023
Spouse(s)	Djutadjuta Mununggurr
Children	3, including Marrnyula Mununggurr and Rerrkirrwanga Mununggurr
Parent(s)	Mundukul Marawili (father), Balungguwuy Gurruwiwi (mother)

Nonggirrnga Marawili (born around 1939, died 2023) was an amazing Australian Yolngu artist. She was known for her paintings and prints. Her father, Mundukul, was also a famous artist and a warrior from long ago.

Nonggirrnga was born on a beach called Darrpirra, near Djarrakpi. She belonged to the Madarrpa clan. She grew up in places like Yilpara and Yirrkala in Arnhem Land, which is in the Northern Territory. Her family often moved around, camping at different Madarrpa clan lands. Nonggirrnga Marawili passed away in Yirrkala in October 2023.

Her Journey as an Artist

Nonggirrnga Marawili started learning to paint on bark in the 1980s. She helped her husband, Djutadjuta Mununggurr, with his artworks. Together, they helped bring new life to Yolngu art. This art had become a bit repetitive because of the tourist market. In her own art, Nonggirrnga showed special designs from her Madarrpa family. She also shared stories from her father and husband.

Starting Printmaking

Nonggirrnga's journey into printmaking began in 1995. This was when an art coordinator named Andrew Blake opened the Yirrkala Print Space. Her prints showed parts of everyday life. They also featured designs from different clans, like Djapu, Madarrpa, and Galpu. Between 1998 and 2015, she made 21 prints. These included screen prints, etchings, and woodblock prints. Some of her well-known prints are Garrangali (1998), Bäru (1999), and Guya (2001).

Painting on Big Barks

Andrew Blake also brought back the tradition of "big barks" at Yirrkala. This made the community excited about bark painting again. Because of this, Nonggirrnga got her first solo art job in 1994. It was a painting called Banumbirr, Morning Star. Later, in 1996, she created Djapu, Galpu Ties. This was a team effort with other artists, Rerrkirrwanga and Marrnyula Mununggurr. This painting was about the connections between her husband's clan (Djapu) and her mother's clan (Galpu).

Developing Her Unique Style

Even though she started her art career in the 1990s, Nonggirrnga Marawili began painting regularly in 2005. An art coordinator named Will Stubbs encouraged her. She then created Wititj (2005) and Untitled (2005). These paintings showed that she could paint designs that were not strictly traditional. Instead, they subtly hinted at older designs. Her works show how Yolngu people can accept new changes. They still keep the old laws and ideas from their ancestors.

In 2011, she started painting at the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre. She became very famous after her 2013 art show. It was called And I am still here and was held in Melbourne. This show had fifteen paintings and four larrakitj (memorial poles). The paintings in this show mixed designs from the Djapu clan, like cross-hatching. They also used Madarrpa designs, like diamonds. These artworks also shared the theme of hunting.

Even with these traditional themes, Marawili said her designs were her own. She said they were not traditional. In an interview in 2013, she explained that the fire she painted was "just an ordinary fire, not a Madarrpa fire". In 2015, her painting Baratjala (2014) was shown in New York City.

Awards and Recognition

Nonggirrnga Marawili won the bark painting prize twice at the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. She won in 2015 for her work Lightning in the Rock. This painting was later bought by the National Gallery of Victoria. She won again in 2019 for her painting Lightning Strikes. Marawili is known for making the designs of the Djapu and Madarrpa clans very simple and powerful. She often used the theme of lightning. This theme is linked to the Madarrpa's Lightning Snake. This ancestral snake uses lightning and thunder to talk to other ancestral snakes.

Her paintings often show lightning, water, fire, and rock. These are very important to the Madarrpa's sacred laws. However, she often changed from the usual ways of traditional painting. She once said, "The painting that I do is not sacred. I can’t steal my father’s [sacred Madarrpa] paintings. I just do my own designs from the outside. Water. Rock. Rocks which stand strong, and the waves which run and crash upon the rock. The sea spray. This is the painting I do... But I know the sacred designs". After 2015, she was allowed to paint some clan designs. These designs connect the Madarrpa to Baratjula. This was a seasonal camp for Marawili when she was a child. It is also linked to old trade with Macassan merchants.

In 2019, an exhibition called Nonggirrnga Marawili: From My Heart and Mind was held. It was at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. A famous art critic, John McDonald, said she was "one of the most dynamic Indigenous artists at work today". Her work was also shown at the Sydney Biennale in 2020.

Where Her Art Can Be Seen

Nonggirrnga Marawili's artworks are held in many important art collections around the world. These include:

• National Gallery of Australia
• Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
• Museum of Contemporary Art
• Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
• Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection at the University of Virginia
• National Gallery of Victoria
• Art Gallery of New South Wales

Important Art Shows

Nonggirrnga Marawili's art has been shown in many important exhibitions:

• 2013: And I am still here. Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, VIC.
• 2015: All watched over. James Cohan Gallery, Manhattan, NY.
• 2016-2019: Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia. This show traveled to many places, including the Newcomb Art Museum and The Phillips Collection.
• 2017: Defying Empire: 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT.
• 2018-2019: Nonggirrnga Marawili: From My Heart and Mind. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW.
• 2020: By the Strength of Her Skin. Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA.
• 2020: Nirin: The 22nd Biennale of Sydney. Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, NSW.