Yolngu Collaborative Bark Paintings
Naminapu is a well established Yolngu artist from Yirrkala, and she and I worked collaboratively on a woodcut print called ‘Similar Cultures.’ Yolngu are Indigenous Australian people living in north-eastern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. Yolngu literally means ‘person’ in the language spoken by the people. Yolngu culture is among the oldest living cultures on earth, stretching back more than 40,000 years. During our work together, from 2001 to 2003, Naminapu adopted me as her daughter. In September 2003, I took up an invitation to visit Naminapu in Yirrkala.
I also visited the Yirrkala Art Centre, where I collaborated and produced artwork with Marrnyula (Watjumi) Munungurr on Bark Painting. The designs used in this collaboration art were part of our daily ritual life.
The designs that I used were from kolams, and the designs that Watjumi used were from her Dhuwa moiety or clan. The patterns in the artwork are ideas and concepts that emerge from the legends and stories of South India and Arnhem Land. They represent the connection between women in our families and culture. Collaboration with the Yolngu women, for me, is to go back in time and relive memories of ritual exchanges with my grandmother and mother.
