Dhuwarrwarr is sister of Wandjuk, Bayngul and Banduk Marika, and daughter of Mawalan, the Rirratjingu clan leader who originally welcomed the missionaries to set up on his land, creating the beginnings of modern day Yirrkala. Dhuwarrwarr is believed by many (including Professor Howard Morphy and herself) to be the first Yolngu woman authorised to paint sacred designs on her own.
“From that time when my father was painting my elder sister helped him but she is a little blind now. From when I was twelve to this time I started to paint. Sometimes I used to help my father. That one (her nephew Mawalan #2) he learned from grandfather and his father. He watched his grandfather – that my father. Currently I’m doing my own art using the same design and lino printing – my fathers design but my own imagination. When my father was alive they only painted on bark. He used to cut bark and lay it flat and store it for the dry season. His (Mawalan #2) sister Rarriwuy is learning – I have been teaching her.
I’m teaching my brother’s children for all the painting as well as my children. I used to ask them to come and watch me. I use my own colours from the shore – the yellow and the red, just a rock, and the black, bayangu (not) charcoal. Like my brother (Wandjuk), I sometimes mix yellow and black to make green. I used to go and get it in a bucket and mash it up and leave it in the sun to dry. I am trying hard to get this man (Mawalan#2) to come back to do the painting. Not all the painting I can remember (being done) but this one; Djang’kawu and this one from my brother, and this one; Djarrak (seagull). Early stage when Dorothy Bennett used to come here to collect barks my father and brother used to paint.”
Dhuwarrwarr is a statesperson for her people, representing them on various committees and institutions such as Land Councils and Women’s groups. In 1993 she traveled to Europe as an invited speaking guest for the opening of the the internationally traveling exhibition of ‘Aratjara – Art of the First Australians’. She also attends to the day to day needs of a wide group of young and old clanspeople wth a particular emphasis on guiding and guarding the young minds of her family.
She lives on Rirratjingu land either at her house overlooking the beach and creek at Yirrkala or at Gutjangan on Bremer Island. Her first genuine solo exhibition held relatively late in her career, ‘Milngurr’ at Vivien Anderson Gallery in Melbourne in 2008 was a literal sell out within 5 minutes of opening. Institutional collections purchased the bulk of the works.
Group Exhibitions:
1974-1976 Art of Aboriginal touring Canada Rothmans of Pall Mall Canada Ltd.
1987 Sisters Miyalku Exhibition of Aboriginal Women’s work Australian Museum Sydney.
1989,Paintings and Sculptures from Yirrkala, NORTH EAST ARNHEM LAND, Lyttleton Gallery, Melbourne
1994, The 11th National Aboriginal Art Awards Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the NT, Darwin.
1995, Miny’tji Buku-Larrnggay, Paintings from the East, National gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
1995, The 12th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Galleries of the NT, Darwin.
1996, The 13th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Galleries of the NT, Darwin.
1997, The 14th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Galleries of the NT, Darwin.
1997, The Painters of the Wagilag Sisters Story 1937 – 1997, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
1998, The 15th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art awards, Museum and Art galleries of the NT, Darwin.
1998, Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Printmakers Exhibition, University of the NT Art Gallery, Darwin.
1998, Bark Paintings and Lino Cut Prints, – Dhuwarrwarr Marika and Gaymala Yunupi\u, Japaningka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
1999, ‘Saltwater Country – Bark Paintings from Yirrkala’ a National Tour, Drill Hall Gallery, ANU, Canberra; John
Curtin Gallery, Curtin Uni, Perth WA; National Australian Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour, Sydney, NSW;
Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Melbourne, Vic; Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs NT.
1999, Yirrkala Print Makers Show, Alcaston House, Melbourne Vic.
1999, Yirrkala Print Makers Show, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London, UK.
1999, Yirrkala Print Makers Show, Original Dreamtime Gallery, Alice Springs, NT.
1999 Hogart Gallery The Rocks Sydney, Print makers touring exhibition.
1999, Boomali Sydney- Printmakers touring Exhibition.
2000-Ben Grady Gallery- Canberra Printmakers Touring Exhibition.
2000- Fireworks Gallery- Brisbane Printmakers Touring Exhibition
‘Extinction Denied’Humane Society International Volvo Gallery Sydney June 2001
June 2006 ‘Walking together to aid Aboriginal Health’ Shalom College UNSW
2006 Telstra 23rd National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards MAGNT
2006 ‘Bulayi- Small Gems’ Suzanne O’Connell Gallery Brisbane
2006 ‘Masterworks’ Vivien Anderson Gallery
2006 ‘Duyfken’ The Aboriginal Print Portfolio commissioned by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Sydney
2006- Gapan Gallery- Print Exhibition Garma Festival.
2006- Galuku Gallery- Print Exhibition Darwin Festival
2007 Womens Show, Vivien Anderson Gallery. Melbourne. NSW
2007 Gapan Gallery. Japanese woodblock print Exhibition. Garma Festival.
2007, Galuku Gallery, Japanese woodblock print Exhibition Festival of Darwin, NT
2007, Bukulungthunmi – Coming Together, One Place, Raft Artspace, Darwin, NT
2008, ‘Milngurr’, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, Vic
2008 Gapan Gallery Berndt Etching Exhibition. Garma Festival
2008- Galuku Gallery Berndt Etching Exhibition Darwin Festival.
2008 ‘The Ecologies Project’ Monash University Museum of Art
2009 After Berndt – Indigenart – Mossenson Gallery, Perth, WA
2009 Floating Life- Contemporary Aboriginal Fibre Art, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
2010 17th Biennale of Sydney, ‘Larrakitj’ the Kerry Stokes Collection, MCA, Sydney, NSW
2010 Djirrirra and Dhuwarrwarr, Bark Paintings at Santa Fe, Chiaroscuro Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
in conjunction with the Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne Vic.
2010; Gapan Gallery- Collograph Print Exhibition, Garma Festival.
2014 – Gapan Gallery GARMA Festival, Northeast Arnhem Land, NT
Collections
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
South Australian Museum. Adelaide
Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
JW Kluge, Virginia, USA
Australian Capital Equity Collection, Perth
Mueum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Berndt Museum, Perth
Nahum Collection, London
Kerry Packer
Kelton Foundation
References:
Isaacs, J., 1987, The Marika Sisters at the Australian Museum, Art Monthly, No.3.
Lendon, N., 1992, Having a history: Development and Change in the Paintings of the Story of the
Wagilag Sisters, Aboriginal Art in the Public eye, Art Monthly supplement.
The Painters of the Wagilag Sisters Story 1937 – 1997, Exh cat. National Gallery of Australia, Caruana,Lendon, Thames and Hudson Ptd Ltd.
Hutcherson G., 1998, Gong Wapitja, Woman Artists of Yirrkala. Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra.
2008 ‘The Ecologies Project’ Monash University Museum of Art
Catalogue: 17th Biennale of Sydney – The Beauty of Distance, Songs of Survival, in a Precarious Age, ISBN 978 0 64652 794 9
© Buku Larrnggay Mulka