Wandjuk Marika

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Wandjuk Marika
Mawalan 1 Marika (father) and Bamatja (mother)
RelativesBanduk Marika (sister), Dhuwarrwarr Marika (sister), Laklak Marika (sister), Bayngul Marika (sister)

Wandjuk Djuwakan Marika

Mawalan 1 Marika
.

Early life

Wandjuk Djuakan Marika was born in 1927 (or 1930[1][2]) on Bremer Island (Dhambaliya) in the Northern Territory.[3] He was the eldest son of Mawalan 1 Marika and his wife Bamatja,[4][3] and the brother of Banduk Marika, Dhuwarrwarr Marika, Bayngul, and Laklak (all sisters).[2] He was a member of the Rirratjingu group of the Yolngu people.[3][4][1] During childhood, he travelled throughout Arnhem Land by foot and by canoe.[5] Through his parents, he learned to respect his country and inherited extensive rights to land through his father, who was a clan leader. [5] His father also taught him how to paint.

Marika was educated and learned English at the

Methodist Overseas Mission at Yirrkala, which was established in 1935. [3][6]

Career

His paintings expressed his people's traditional lore and spiritual beliefs, and included Djang'kawu Story (1960) and Birth of the Djang'kawu Children of Yelangbara (1982).

Wawilak sisters. The expression of these stories was part of his responsibility as a clan leader, and the skills were passed on by his father, Mawalan 1.[1]

In a 1974 Marika was distressed to discover that an earlier painting, Sea life (Dreaming of the artist’s mother) (1959) had been turned into a

Warramirri clan Dreaming and he was so distressed by this incident that he stopped painting for years;[1] he said he lost his power to paint.[7]

As he had been taught English at the mission school, he used his skills to assist anthropologists such as

Charles Mountford and Ronald and Catherine Berndt to understand Yolngu culture.[1] He also used the skills of English to help translate the Bible into the Gumatj language. Furthermore, it allowed him to help with the creation of the Yirrkala Bark Petition in 1963. [6]

Once he became an established artist, Marika was recognised as a member of the Aboriginal Arts Advisory Committee of the

Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies' advisory committee.[3]

As an actor, Marika appeared in the films Where the Green Ants Dream (1984) and Initiation (1987). He also appeared in the television miniseries Women of the Sun. He was both actor and composer in Where the Green Ants Dream.[9]

He was the author of The Aboriginal Children's History of Australia.

balanda, understanding that this book was for a public audience and it was his responsibility to protect that sacred knowledge.[11] Marika died in 1987, prior to the book being published, and Isaacs waited the appropriate amount of time (as determined by his community) to publish his work in 1995.[12]

Activism

Marika wrote frequent but unsuccessful letters to the

Australian Parliament.[13][14]

Following the appropriation of his sacred clan designs on a line of Dutch tea towels, Marika became concerned with the intellectual and cultural property rights of Indigenous Australians. The reproduction of these designs disrespected the sacred knowledge of his people and were being sold primarily for their aesthetic value, rather than a cultural one.[15] Marika lobbied for the creation of the Aboriginal Artists Agency in 1973 to protect the copyright of Aboriginal artists and Indigenous intellectual property.[3][1] In an article about him, the Canberra Times wrote that he considered land rights to be the most important aboriginal cause and that he believed the ownership of sacred land remained a significant issue to Aboriginal people. [16]

Recognition and honours

In 1979 he was appointed an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.[17][18]

A photographic portrait of Marika by Juno Gemes (1979) hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra,[19] and several of his paintings feature in the Art Gallery of New South Wales.[1]

His name was given to the

Wandjuk Marika 3D Memorial Award, a category of the prestigious National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, awarded annually by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.[20][21]

His art is also featured in the Madayin exhibition which is on tour in the United States from 2022-2025 and encompasses eight decades of artistic production at Yirrkala, from 1935 to the present. His painting titled "The Birth of the Djan'kawu Children at Yalaŋbara" is represented in the exhibition. [22]

Personal life and death

His son

Mawalan 2 Marika is also an artist,[23] and his daughter is Rarriwuy Marika. Wandjuk Marika was the uncle of Raymattja Marika.[17]

Marika died on 16 June 1987.[1]

See also

  • Roy Dadaynga Marika
    (c.1925– 1993)

References

  1. ^
    Art Gallery of NSW
    . Retrieved 17 August 2021. [Extract from] Ken Watson in Tradition today: Indigenous art in Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2014.
  2. ^ a b "Banduk Marika". Sites and Trails NT. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Isaacs, Jennifer, "Marika, Wandjuk Djuakan (1927–1987)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 16 June 2018
  4. ^
    ISBN 0-7254-0884-7
    , p.5
  5. ^ a b Isaacs, Jennifer, "Wandjuk Djuakan Marika (1927–1987)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 22 April 2024
  6. ^ a b Austlit. "Wandjuk Marika | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories". www.austlit.edu.au. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  7. ^ a b Smallacombe, Sonia (1998). Intellectual and cultural property rights for indigenous Australians (Masters by research). University of Melbourne.
  8. ^ Australia Council, Annual Report, 1976/77 (Canberra: AGPS, 1978), pp 7 and 8.
  9. IMDb
  10. ISBN 0-7270-0236-8
    , 1977
  11. ^ Van Toorn, Penny (October 2009). "A Book By Any Other Name? Towards a Social History of the Book in Aboriginal Australia: Australian Literary Studies". Australian Literary Studies. 24 (2): 5–20.
  12. ^ Brigid Delaney (24 August 2001). "Unspeakable behaviour? It's in the eye of the beholder: Sydney Morning Herald, The". Sydney Morning Herald, The: 9.
  13. ISBN 9780731556403
    .
  14. ISSN 1035-8811
    .
  15. ISSN 0093-8157
    .
  16. ^ "Land 'is main issue'". Canberra Times. 12 July 1974. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
  17. ^ a b "Marika:Wandjuk Marika". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Dynasties. 4 March 2016. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  18. ^ "Mr Wandjuk Djuwakan Marika". Australian Honours Search Facility. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  19. ^ "Wandjuk Marika, 1979". National Portrait Gallery. Collection. 16 July 2021. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  20. ^ "24th Telstra NATSIAA - Museums and Art Galleries - Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts". nt.gov.au. 27 November 2007. Archived from the original on 27 November 2007. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  21. ^ "35th Telstra NATSIAA Winners". Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  22. ^ "Djan'kawupuy Dhäwu Yalaŋbarawuy | The Birth of the Djan'kawu Children at Yalaŋbara". Kluge-Ruhe: Madayin. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  23. ^ "Wandjuk Marika OBE, b. 1927". National Portrait Gallery. People. 16 July 2021. Retrieved 17 August 2021.

Further reading

External links

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