Mawalan Marika

Mawalan Marika (c. 1908–1967), Yolngu ceremonial leader, political activist and artist, was leader of the Rirratjingu clan, upon whose Arnhem Land country the Yirrkala Mission was established in the mid-1930s. As non-Indigenous people arrived and remained in the area he became an important negotiator for the Yolngu. In the late 1940s, Marika contributed to a set of 365 crayon drawings made for anthropologists Ronald and Catherine Berndt. During the 1950s, he encouraged the commercial production of bark paintings, hoping to promote understanding of Yolgnu spiritual beliefs and traditions, and painted large bark works for the Art Gallery of New South Wales. He contributed to the Yirrkala church panels, and was instrumental in sending the bark petition to Canberra that has since become a key document in the history of Aboriginal land rights legislation. Marika was one of the first Indigenous artists to teach his daughters (Banduk and Dhuwarrwarr) to paint and his son, Wandjuk, was a highly influential Indigenous spokesperson and artist.

During a visit to Avalon Public School in Sydney in the early 1960s, Marika met the painter and sculptor Arthur Murch, who was teaching art to the children. Murch painted this poignant unfinished portrait of the artist in his unique style, depicting Australian people and landscape using Renaissance techniques.

Purchased 2015
© Arthur Murch/Copyright Agency, 2024