Owen Yalandja facts for kids

Owen Yalandja (born 1961) is a famous Aboriginal Australian artist from western Arnhem Land in Australia. He is a carver, painter, and singer for the Kuninjku people. Yalandja is known around the world for his amazing painted wood carvings of female water spirits called yawkyawk. He also creates beautiful paintings on eucalyptus bark.

Who is Owen Yalandja?

Owen Yalandja was born in 1961 in a community called Maningrida. He is a senior member of the Dangkorlo clan. This means he has the important job of protecting a special site called the Mirrayar billabong. A billabong is a type of lake or pond.

This site is home to the yawkyawk, which are female water spirits. You can think of them as being similar to mermaids. For the Kuninjku people, yawkyawks are the spirits of their female ancestors. They believe these spirits can be scared by humans and will hide in the sacred billabong.

Yalandja is not only a talented artist but also a singer at ceremonies for the yawkyawk. He learned how to carve from his father, Crusoe Kuningbal, who was a famous artist and leader.

Learning from His Father

Yalandja's father, Crusoe Kuningbal, was a well-known carver, painter, and ceremonial leader. In the 1960s, he started carving figures of another type of spirit called mimih spirits. For a long time, he was the only artist in Maningrida who carved these figures.

Mimih spirits are said to be tall, thin beings that live inside rocks. They are believed to come out at night and can become invisible to humans.

Following Aboriginal tradition, Kuningbal taught his sons, Owen Yalandja and Crusoe Kurddal, how to carve these figures. After their father passed away in 1984, the brothers began to create their own large carvings. Kurddal's art stayed very similar to his father's style. But Yalandja started to experiment with new ideas and techniques.

Creating a Unique Art Style

While his father and brother focused on mimih spirits, Yalandja decided to create art about the yawkyawk spirits from his clan's sacred site. Instead of just painting them on bark, he began making large, three-dimensional wood sculptures.

Yalandja once said, "Yawkyawk is a bit the equivalent of a mermaid in balanda [non-Aboriginal] culture. Yawkyawk is my Dreaming and she lives in the water at Barrihdjowkkeng... I often visit this place."

The Look of Yawkyawk Sculptures

Yalandja's sculptures show the yawkyawk as slender spirits with fish-like tails, long bodies, and long faces. He and his brother made their carvings much larger than their father's work to better show the power of the spirits. Some of his sculptures are over 2.8 meters (9 feet) tall!

To create the look of fish scales, Yalandja developed his own special painting techniques. At first, he used a dot pattern he learned from his father. Later, in 1990, he created a new 'V'-shaped pattern that made the scales look more realistic and shiny, as if they were wet.

Yalandja explained, "this style is [my] own, no one else does them like this." He also started using black backgrounds for his figures, which was different from the traditional red his father used. The black paint, made from natural materials, makes the colourful scales stand out.

Carving with Special Wood

To make his sculptures, Yalandja uses wood from the kurrajong tree (Brachychiton diversifolius). This is the same type of wood his father used for mimih carvings. The wood is strong and doesn't split easily, which is perfect for carving detailed shapes.

He often chooses curved pieces of wood to make the yawkyawk look like they are swimming or moving. Sometimes, a natural split in the wood is perfect for creating the spirit's forked tail. This gives his art a sense of life and movement.

Other Types of Art

Besides his famous sculptures, Yalandja also paints yawkyawks on bark from eucalyptus trees. He also paints on hollow-log coffins, which are called lorrkkon.

In the past, lorrkkon were used in ceremonies. Today, artists like Yalandja also create them as works of art. He paints them with the same unique scale pattern he uses on his sculptures, turning the log into a beautiful, three-dimensional piece of art.

Yalandja's Legacy

Owen Yalandja's creative and unique style has made him one of the most important artists from Central Arnhem Land. He has continued his father's legacy while also creating something new and exciting. His work is shown in major art galleries in Australia and around the world, including the British Museum.

He has been a finalist five times in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA). In 2023, he won the Bark Painting Award at the NATSIAAs. Today, Yalandja continues to create art and is teaching his own children how to carve, passing on the tradition just as his father did for him.

Collections

• Art Gallery of New South Wales
• Art Gallery of South Australia
• Australian Museum, Sydney
• The British Museum
• Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College
• Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia
• Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
• National Gallery of Victoria
• Queensland Art Gallery
• National Gallery of Australia
• Australian Museum, Sydney
• Musée des Confluences, Lyon, France