294:) are bestowed to all aspects of yolngu land and plants, but artists only have authority to paint designs relating to their own moiety, clan, and ancestors. To accommodate plant life that didn't belong to her identity, she developed an "ordinary" method of depicting them, saying, "I had to let the plants tell me what their secular identity or character was. By the way they grow or the way they look or express themselves. They gave me their rhythm or their pattern."In doing so, Wirrpanda skirts around sacred designs by alluding to them without evoking their ancestral essence. This new approach, coupled with working alongside Wolesely's western perspectives, allowed her to probe the outer limits of Yolngu systems.
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274:(brother) and named him Langgurrk. Wirrpanda was passionate about educating her community and future generations about healthy living, saying to Wolesely, "I'm going to paint lots of these plants, and one of the reasons I'm going to paint them is my people are dying because they're eating the wrong food". She identified the overwhelming presence of
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and natural species around the bush to paint with
Wolesely, and their project highlighted the different styles of painting between their skill sets and perspectives. Wolesely described his approach as "full frontal", in which a subject's outside appearance was the focus, but it also existed to
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Mulkun 1 Wirrpanda / Dhudi/Djapu people b.1947 / Yalata 2008 / Wood (Eucalyptus tetrodonta) with natural pigments / 189 x 16cm (diam.)A: (diam.) 189 x 16 cm / The James C. Sourris AM Collection. Gift of James C. Sourris through the
Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2010. Donated through the
155:. Seeing that McColl had apprehended his wife and child, Dhakiyarr killed McColl. Her father was set to receive the death penalty yet was later released. He was never seen again, leading the family and others familiar with the case to believe he was killed shortly after his release.
166:. She married Madarrpa clan leader Wakuthi Marawili (who predeceased her), with whom she had three children. Her two daughters, Yalmakany and Gurrundul, are senior rangers, and her son, Borrak, is a lawman. By kinship, current Madarrpa leader
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Wolesely met
Wirrpanda when he was invited by the Nomad Art Gallery to meet Yolngu painters and paint the land with them. Developing a strong relationship, she adopted Wolesely as her
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while recounting the events that lead to his arrest. Her father killed policeman Albert McColl, who was searching for other Yolngu men who had killed a
Japanese fisherman in
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produce a dialogue of overlapping systems and ideas. On the other hand, Wirrpanda homed in on a subject’s inner essence with respect to how it moves and has its being. In
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region with
British painter John Wolesely. This partnership began through "Djalkiri: We are standing on their names", a collaborative project between Yolngu leaders and
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Australian
Government's Cultural Gifts Program / Accession No: 2010.194 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © The artist / Cited at
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In her community, Wirrpanda was regarded as an important elder and ceremonial leader, which was a rare position for a woman to hold in Yolngu law.
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as a major problem for
Aboriginal communities, and aimed to make this book readily available to the community and youth as a tool for knowledge.
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Studd, Annie, et al. "String Figure Prints". Balnhdhurr: A Lasting
Impression, Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre, Nhulunbuy, 2015, pp. 34–35.
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Most of
Wirrpanda's life was spent in the homelands of Yilpara, Dhuruputjpi, and Gangan, as she was an early leader of the
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and her family’s reconciliation afterwards. She was shown preparing armbands for her family's ceremonial performance in
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802:. In Midawarr: Harvest, edited by John Wolseley and Will Stubbs. Canberra: National Museum of Australia, 2017.
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practices, documenting more than 30 species. Their various exhibitions included various bark paintings,
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relating to her land near
Dhuruputjpi. She explores these subjects through various mediums including
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of Australia. Coming from a family of artists, her work focuses on botany surrounding her homelands.
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Wirrpanda's artwork largely focuses on edible plants and natural species as well as the Dhudi-Djapu
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of Dhuruputjpi. Her father was community leader Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda, who was involved in the
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This article was originally published in Art Collector issue 103, January-March 2023.
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Working with the Yirrkala print space, Wirrpanda contributed to a 2010 exhibition of
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Wirrpanda produced a series of exhibitions surrounding botany and plant life in the
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744:"Midawarr/Harvast: The Art of Mulkun Wirrpanda and John Woleseley at the NMA"
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Maḏayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala
943:"Mulkun Wirrpanda - Search the Collection, National Gallery of Australia"
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to generate prints showcasing their land through different perspectives.
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337: in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
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Mulkuṉ Wirrpanda was born in 1947, part of the Dhudi-Djapu clan of the
678:"NGV International presents Bark Ladies: Eleven Artists from Yirrkala"
608:"Midawarr | Harvest: The Art of Mrs Wirrpanda and John Wolseley"
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Mulkun Wirrpanda - One Lore, Two Law, Outlaw: Dhakiyarr vs the King
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To See a World: Picturing Nature through the Prism of Midawarr
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in November 2017 and coincided with the release of the book,
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Midawarr|Harvest: The Art of Ms. Wirrpanda and John Wolesely
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Mulkun Wirrpanda / Fiona MacDonald: More Than Honeyed Words
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She worked at the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre in Yirrkala.
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Barrupu Yunupingu/Mulkun Wirrpanda: Fire, Water, and Honey
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Since 2009, Wirrpanda worked with British-born painter
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Matriarchs: Motherlines of the Yolngu and Tiwi Islands
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Mother to Daughter: On Art and Caring for Homelands
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838:"Gurrutu: the Art of Mulkun Wirrpanda"
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485:term meaning "sacred" and "hidden".)
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421:Gurrutu: The Art of Mulkun Wirrpanda
335:adding citations to reliable sources
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204:, weaving and prints.
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140:Dhakiyarr vs the King
100:Aboriginal Australian
864:"A Yirrkala Cracker"
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281:Wirrpanda collected
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961:"Mulkun Wirrpanda"
724:. 10 February 2024
632:. 16 February 2021
630:Art Gallery of NSW
553:"Mulkun Wirrpanda"
441:A Yirrkala Cracker
346:"Mulkun Wirrpanda"
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265:Midawarr | Harvest
249:sustainable living
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160:homelands movement
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1038:. Maḏayin.
527:References
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583:"Artists"
276:junk food
253:larrakitj
110:, in the
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350:news
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188:Art
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