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27-682: The Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre , formerly Buku-Larrŋgay Arts and also known as the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre and Museum , is an art centre in Yirrkala , Arnhem Land , in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is often referred to as Buku for short. It is one of many Indigenous art centres across Australia, which support their communities and make them self-reliant – an Australian invention. Many notable artists have worked or continue to work at

54-587: A large number of paintings for Charles Mountford and the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land . Between 1959 and 1962, Yunupingu produced some of his largest and most significant works for the collector-donor Stuart Scougall, who along with the Art Gallery of New South Wales' assistant director, Tony Tuckson, commissioned a series of monumental bark paintings from the artists of Yirrkala to lay out

81-535: A major role in the appreciation of Indigenous art by non-Indigenous people. The inspiration for the gallery arose in the 1960s, when Narritjin Maymuru set up his own gallery on the beachfront. In 1976 Buku-Larrŋgay Arts was established by local artists in the old Yirrkala Mission health centre, after missionaries had left and as the Aboriginal land rights and Homeland movements gathered pace. A new museum

108-511: A well-balanced mix of colours dominated by the use of yellow ochre. The human figures he painted tend to be broad-shouldered and have elongated bodies. Yunupingu was involved in most of the significant moments in Yolngu art history of the twentieth century. He produced a number of fine crayon drawings for the anthropologist Ronald Berndt after he arrived in Yirrkala in 1946 and in 1948 created

135-714: Is a stage called the Roy Marika Stage at the centre, which is used for the annual Yarrapay Festival. In June 2021, the festival was directed by Witiyana Marika , and featured the Andrew Gurruwiwi Band, Yothu Yindi , Yirrmal , and East Journey . The historic Yirrkala Church Panels were created in 1963 by Yolngu elders of the Dhuwa moiety (including Mawalan Marika , Wandjuk Marika and Mithinarri Gurruwiwi ), who painted one sheet with their major ancestral narratives and clan designs, and eight elders of

162-510: The Australian Government 's Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support programme. In 1996, extra gallery spaces and a screen print studio were built, and in 2007, The Mulka Project was added. This project comprises a collection of many thousands of historical images and films, and continues to create new digital art and images. As of 2015 it represented more than 300 artists from around the homelands, and exhibitions of work by

189-674: The ELDO tracking station at Gurlkurla by Geoff Woods, who was employed as the base manager at a nearby weapons research centre. One work of these works, Space Tracking Station (1967), was subsequently acquired by the South Australian Museum and included in the exhibition Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia at the Asia Society Galleries in New York City in 1988. Another work, Man Landing on

216-820: The United States , "art centers" are generally either establishments geared toward exposing, generating, and making accessible art making to arts-interested individuals, or buildings that rent primarily to artists, galleries, or companies involved in art making. In Britain , the Bluecoat Society of Arts was founded in Liverpool in 1927 following the efforts of a group of artists and art lovers who had occupied Bluecoat Chambers since 1907. Most British art centres began after World War II and gradually changed from mainly middle-class places to 1960s and 1970s trendy , alternative centres and eventually in

243-511: The 1970s, 1980s and 1990s as squatted spaces and were later legalized. Italy Palestine Mungurrawuy Yunupingu Mungurrawuy Yunupingu (c.1905–1979) was a prominent Aboriginal Australian artist and leader of the Gumatj clan of the Yolngu people of northeastern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. He was known for his bark paintings . Mungurrawuy Yunupingu

270-459: The 1980s to serving the whole community with a programme of enabling access to wheelchair users and disabled individuals and groups. In the rest of Europe it is common among most art centres that they are partly government funded, since they are considered to have a positive influence on society and economics according to the Rhineland model philosophy. Many of those organisations started in

297-605: The Commonwealth Government's Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support programme. As of 2020, the centre, greatly expanded, comprises two divisions: the Yirrkala Art Centre, which represents the artists exhibiting and selling contemporary art , and The Mulka Project, which incorporates the museum. It is known for its production of bark paintings , weaving in natural fibres, larrakitj (memorial poles), yidaki , and many other forms of art. There

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324-776: The Moon (1969), which depicts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin 's Moon landing is held in the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia . On 18 February 1963, the Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced the opening of bauxite mines in the Arnhem Land reserve without consulting Yolngu leaders. Furious at the lack of transparency the Australian Government held for

351-562: The Year . He died in northeast Arnhem Land in 1979. During his career as an artist, Yunupingu drew upon ancestral narratives in his paintings and wood carvings. He is known to be one of the artists who spearheaded the “episodic” manner of painting, where stories are painted in a series of panels to show how they unfold over time. While he painted traditional stories and concepts, his innovation greatly diverged from common single-panelled narrative paintings. His painting style can be described as

378-545: The Yirritja moiety , including Birrikitji Gumana and Narritjin Maymuru , painted the other sheet with Yirritja designs. This was the first significant political claim to the land by Aboriginal Australians , accompanied by physical documentation in the form of the church panel paintings. This would lead to the creation of the Yirrkala Bark Petitions of 1963 (to which Yunupingu was a signatory ) and

405-484: The Yirritja moiety , including Mungurrawuy Yunupingu , Birrikitji Gumana , and Narritjin Maymuru , who painted the other sheet with Yirritja designs. They were discarded by the church in 1974, but were salvaged by Buku-Larrnggay in 1978. On 27 February 1998 they were unveiled by then prime minister John Howard , and were described by Yolŋu leaders as "Title Deeds which establish the legal tenure for each of our traditional clan estates". Women artists who have worked at

432-430: The Yolngu people, clan elders came together to paint the famous Yirrkala Church Panels , which documented the Yolngu claim to the land through ancestral stories. Consisting of two 4 m (13 ft) sheets of masonite , eight elders of the Dhuwa moiety (including Mawalan Marika , Wandjuk Marika and Mithinarri Gurruwiwi ) painted one sheet with their major ancestral narratives and clan designs, and eight elders of

459-636: The artists were being shown across Australia and internationally. The Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre, formerly Buku-Larrŋgay Arts and also known as the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre and Museum, is a world-renowned art centre in Yirrkala. It is often referred to as Buku for short. It is one of many Indigenous art centres across Australia, which support their communities and make them self-reliant. This type of centre is, according to art coordinator Will Stubbs, an Australian invention. As of 2024, Buku-Larrnggay continues to be supported by

486-514: The centre include five sisters: Nancy Gaymala Yunupingu , Gulumbu Yunupingu , Barrupu Yunupingu , Nyapanyapa Yunupingu , and Eunice Djerrkngu Yunupingu ; as well as Dhuwarrwarr Marika ; Malaluba Gumana ; Naminapu Maymuru-White ; Nonggirrnga Marawili ; Dhambit Mununggurr , and Mulkuṉ Wirrpanda . Their work was included in a December 2021 – April 2022 exhibition at the NGV, called Bark Ladies: Eleven Artists from Yirrkala . Other notable artists at

513-401: The centre, past and present, include Banduk Marika , Gunybi Ganambarr , Djambawa Marawili , and Yanggarriny Wunungmurra . Maḏayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala is an exhibition mounted by the centre in collaboration with the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia in 2024. Inspired by Djambawa Marawili and seven years in

540-487: The centre. The centre also has a stage, named after artist and Indigenous rights activist Roy Marika (c.1925 – 1993), which is used for the annual Yarrapay Festival . The art of the Yirrkala area has developed a growing market ever since the township was founded as a mission by the Methodist Overseas Mission in 1935, and started selling local artworks. Evidence suggests that Yirrkala art played

567-505: The high court case Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd (Gove land rights case). The Yirrkala panels were discarded by the church in 1974, but were salvaged by the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre in 1978. On 27 February 1998 they were unveiled by then prime minister John Howard , and were described by Yolŋu leaders as "Title Deeds which establish the legal tenure for each of our traditional clan estates". Facsimiles of

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594-499: The major ancestral narratives of the Yolngu clans. Scougall described these works as "the first time such a collection of bark paintings was made in a pictorial ballad sequence whereas other collections have been essentially sporadic, of a piecemeal nature." The majority of these works are now held in the Art Gallery of New South Wales , however a small number of works commissioned by Scougall can be found in other collections around

621-668: The making, it is the first major exhibition of bark painting to tour the United States. It is curated entirely by Yolŋu artists and knowledge holders from Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka, and is being exhibited around the country from 4 February 2024 to 5 January 2025. Maḏayin is a Yolŋu term meaning "sacred" and "hidden". The National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne has been collecting bark paintings by Buku artists since around 2000, which are included in its significant collection of work by Yolŋu women artists. Arts centre In

648-554: The world, including the Saint Louis Art Museum . Yunupingu also established a strong relationship with the collector and art dealer Jim Davidson. Aside from ancestral stories, he also produced several paintings depicting the interaction of Yolngu with the Makassan people, who were seafarers that seasonally visited the northern Arnhem Land coast to harvest trepang , or sea cucumbers. It is suspected that Yunupingu

675-1049: Was born in northeast Arnhem Land around 1905, of the Yirritja moiety. He became a senior cultural leader of the Gumatj clan in Yirrkala , in Arnhem Land, and was one of the most significant painters of his time. He was the most prominent Gumatj artist active during the mission days in Arnhem Land. In 1978, H.C. "Nugget" Coombs , the former Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia , described Mungurrawuy as "an impressive figure – tall, massive, bearded, powerful. He has seven wives and thirty children. These, no doubt, are measures of his status in his community". Many of these children would go on to have significant careers as artists, musicians and political leaders, most notably his daughters Gulumbu Yunupingu , Gaymala Yunupingu , and Nyapanyapa Yunupingu , and his sons Galarrwuy and Mandawuy Yunupingu , who have both been Australians of

702-485: Was built in 1988 using a Bicentenary grant, and this now contains a collection created in the 1970s which illustrates clan law. It also houses the message sticks which, after delivery by the anthropologist Donald Thomson , were instrumental in establishing peaceful talks during the Caledon Bay crisis in 1935. Naminapu Maymuru-White was curator from 1990 until 1996. From 1998 Buku-Larrnggay has been supported by

729-507: Was quite young when he last interacted with Makassans, since the Australian Government banned other countries from using the resources found on Australian coasts in 1906. However, he did remember meeting Makassan people and for Berndt’s crayon drawing commission, he drew his famous Port of Macassar . In the late 1960s, Yunupingu was commissioned to produce a series of painting on masonite board to commemorate events involving

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