Australian Aboriginal bark painting, "Milngunya (Milky Way) Dreaming." Jakarppi. Naminapu Maymuru & Wukun Wanambi (d)/ Nhulunbuy-Gove, artists of the Yirritja ga Dhuwa moiety. The painting depicts the creation of the Milky Way. When a Mangalili person dies, his or her spirit goes to the Milky Way.

Wukun Wanambi is a highly regarded Aboriginal artist, who is fluent in film-making as well as more traditional indigenous genres. He has traveled to New York City and shared his native culture on public media. Wanambi was born in Gurka'wuy as the oldest son in his family. His father, Mithili Wanambi, was an esteemed clan leader and renowned painter. Although he was born to a family of artists, he wished to be a politician growing up.

When Mithili died in 1981, sacred clan designs could no longer be painted because no one had the authority to paint them anymore. It was not until 1997 that Djunggayi (caretakers and preservers of clan knowledge) taught Wanambi the designs. Wanambi then began painting and created for the Saltwater Country exhibition, re-introducing motifs that had not been painted since his father's death.

From this point on, he became a highly renowned artist, dedicated to honoring his father and ancestry through his art.

Naminapu Maymuru-White is an Aboriginal Australian Indigenous painter born a member of the Mangalili clan, at the Yirrkala mission station in Northeast Arnhem Land in Northern Australia in 1952. Naminapu is an extremely versatile artist with skills in the areas of painting, carving, screen-printing, weaving, lino-cuts and batik work. As a child she sat for hours patiently watching her father paint.

At about the age of 12, she began to learn herself, and was fortunate in being taught by her father’s brother, Narritjin Maymuru, as well as by her own father, Nånyin Maymuru. Both men were extremely able and well-known artists, whose works hang in many Australian and overseas museums. After attending the mission school, she worked for some time in the store and craft shop and also helped out in the local bank.

When the Homeland Centre of Gurka’wuy was established in 1973, Naminapu went to live there with her husband and young family of three children. During the years she spent there, Naminapu worked as a teacher trainee and later, on her return to Yirrkala, completed her teacher training. When she later married Leon White, a teacher in the Northern Territory, Naminapu went to live for several years in Melbourne and Darwin.
44 1/2" x 22" #AGW821