Wandjuk marika biography

Wandjuk Djuakan Marika (1927-1987), Aboriginal leader and artist, was born in 1927 on Bremer Island (Dhambaliya), Northern Territory, eldest son of Mawalan.
Wandjuk Djuwakan Marika OBE (c.
Wandjuk was also recognised as a significant Aboriginal artist in the 1970s.

•

Title: Wandjuk Marika Life Story : As told to Jennifer Isaacs [used book]

Author Name:Wandjuk Marika

ISBN-10: 0702225649

ISBN-13: 9780702225642

Location Published: Australia, University of Queensland Press: 1995

Binding:Soft cover

Book Condition: Good

Size: 27.8 x 21.4 x 1.1 cm

Kg: 0.81 Kg

Type:Book

Categories:Australian Biographies, Australian History, Indigenous Australian History

Seller ID:9780702225642

•

Wandjuk Marika OBE

Wandjuk Marika OBE (1927–1987), artist and activist, was a Rirrratjingu (Yolgnu) Elder, and a member of the Marika family of artists from the Gove Peninsula, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. His father Mawalan Marika was one of the original bark painters at Yirrkala; his sister is artist Banduk Marika; and his son, Mawalan, is also an artist. Wandjuk began painting on bark as a teenager, taught by his father, and developed a distinctive clan style of representing myth episodes in large bark paintings. He contributed to the painting of the Yirrkala Church panels and the Bark Petition presented to the Australian Government in 1963 to protest against the decision to grant mining leases on the Gove Peninsula. A founding member of the Australia Council, Wandjuk was chair of the Aboriginal Arts Board from 1975 to 1980. An advocate for Indigenous artists' rights, he began a campaign to secure copyright for Aboriginal artists, which led to the formation of the Aboriginal Artists Agency. Recognised as a significant Aboriginal artist in the 1960s and 1970s, Wandjuk's wor

•

Wandjuk Marika

Biography

‘Painting is very important. It’s the design or symbol, power of the land.’

Wandjuk Marika was born on Dhambaliya (Bremer Island), the eldest son of Mawalan Marika. His early life was influenced by the increasing intrusion of balanda (whitefella) influence and activity in Arnhem Land. After the establishment of Yirrkala Mission in 1935, increasing numbers of academics, mining representatives, hunters, fishermen and art enthusiasts visited the region.

Marika grew up learning the skills associated with his future responsibilities as a leader of the Rirratjingu clan and Dhuwa moiety. His father taught him to hunt and his ceremonial obligations regarding the two major Dhuwa ancestral song cycles – the Djang’kawu Story and the Wawilak Sisters. Marika was also one of the first students, and later an assistant, at the Yirrkala Mission school. His facility with English enabled him to interpret Yolngu culture for visiting anthropologists and art collectors, including Charles Mountford and Ronald and Catherine Berndt. Marika started painting on bark when he was