Take 5

Dr B Marika

Yolŋu artist Dr B Marika AO (1954-2021) has dedicated her career to the development, recognition and preservation of First Nations art and culture. Since the death of her father and brother, both established and renowned artists, Marika and her sisters have maintained the artistic and cultural traditions of the Rirratjiŋu clan. They were among the first Yolŋu women urged to paint by their male kin to carry on this important work. From this experience Banduk emerged, not only as a successful artist, but also a respected activist, educator and community leader.

Favouring relief printmaking over bark painting, a prevalent genre in her community, Marika translates her ancestral stories and knowledge through intricately-carved lines, figures and motifs. In 1986 she was Artist-in-Residence at Flinders University and returned in April 2018 when she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters. Most recently in 2019 she was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for her outstanding contribution the visual arts and is currently represented in the National Gallery of Australia’s exhibition Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now.

Flinders University Museum of Art care for a number of Marika’s linocuts, some of which were made as part of her Artist-in-Residence program and relate to the Rirratjiŋu ancestral site known as Yalaŋbara (Port Bradshaw). Yalaŋbara is located south of Yirrkala in north-east Arnhem Land and is considered by the Yolŋu to be the original place of human creation. The crystal-clear waters and towering sand dunes of the peninsula belong collectively to the Rirratjiŋu clan, but Marika and her relatives hold special custodial responsibilities for the site.

Madeline Reece
Exhibitions and Public Programs Manager, Flinders University Museum of Art
Adelaide, Australia, 2021

© Flinders University Museum of Art

^{Dr B Marika
1954 - 2021, Yirrkala, Northern Territory
Rirratjiŋu people}

^{Guluwurru from Yalaŋbara Suite 2000
linocut, ink on paper
20.2 x 28.5 cm, ed 20/30}

^{Collection of Flinders University Museum of Art 3379.001, © Banduk Marika 2021}

Guluwurru is the first linocut from Marika’s six-part series, Yalaŋbara Suite which depicts the story of the Djaŋkawu creation ancestors. Yolŋu believe the Djaŋkawu were guided to Yalaŋbara by the light of the Morning Star and ocean currents as they travelled from Burralku, the so-called Isle of the Dead. When they arrived at Yalaŋbara, the rising sun marked the beginning of Yolngu life. From here the Djaŋkawu brother and his two sisters began their great creation journey. As they travelled across north-east Arnhem Land the sisters gave birth to the clans of the Dhuwa moiety and bestowed on them their cultural customs, language and sacred objects. In this image the Djaŋkawu brother and his two pregnant sisters, one of whom is sleeping, are paddling their canoe while following the light of the Morning Star.

^{Djaŋkawu from Yalaŋbara Suite 2000
linocut, ink on paper
29.7 x 20.3 cm, ed 20/30}

^{Collection of Flinders University Museum of Art 3379.005, © Banduk Marika 2021}

Djaŋkawu is also from Marika’s Yalaŋbara Suite and depicts the Djaŋkawu brother creation ancestor. He is standing on the island of Burralku, also known as the Isle of the Dead, and is holding sacred digging sticks. He and his sisters are about to commence their long creation journey which culminates in the creation of the environment, peoples and ceremonies of Yolŋu culture.

^{Djanda and sacred waterhole 1984
linocut, coloured inks on paper
76 x 56.5 cm, ed A/P}

^{Collection of Flinders University Museum of Art 2132, © Banduk Marika 2021}

Djanda and sacred waterhole is one of Marika’s most recognised works. This six-colour linocut depicts the goanna Djanda with elements of a much larger sacred creation story associated with the site of Yalaŋbara.

This work was at the centre of a controversial but ground-breaking copyright case, known as ‘The Carpet Case’. In 1993 Marika along with seven Aboriginal artists and their estates, as well as the Public Trustee for the Northern Territory, launched legal action against Perth-based company Indofurn Pty Ltd for eight illegal artwork reproductions. Under the Copyright Act (1968) and Trade Practices Act (1974), artists sought damages for various infringements including copyright, misleading and deceptive conduct and false representations as to the nature and character of goods with regard to the unauthorized reproductions. Marika’s linocut was copied from a National Gallery of Australia publication and reproduced as a large-scale carpet produced in Vietnam, a country that has no copyright law. The success of this case set a landmark precedent for the protection of Indigenous art and culture in Australia.

^{Megapunuway nyarrunyau 1988
linocut, brown ink on paper
28.5 x 47.5 cm, ed 6/20}

^{Collection of Flinders University Museum of Art 2549, © Banduk Marika 2021}

Marika’s linocut prints weave together her family’s cultural designs and stories with contemporary art-making practice to create intricately detailed, two- dimensional illustrations to capture Yolŋu life and Country. The sea provides a steady supply of food for Yolŋu people and in Megapunuway nyarrunyau Marika depicts turtle hunters a subject originally painted by her father, Mawalan Marika, on bark.  In this image people are hunting turtles and fish with spears from canoes which are charted against a background of delicate cross-hatching.

^{Baru, marna, ga bathurumirri barpi 1988
linocut, ink on paper
30.2 x 51.2 cm, ed 19/20}

^{Collection of Flinders University Museum of Art 2550, © Banduk Marika 2021}

A lot of my own work, I’ve picked up different images that relate to my family totemwise, but still have it in my own way so that I don’t have to misuse my family traditional art, because there is a law against that. How I use the traditional art is when I’m dancing and then I’m involved in ceremonies. Sometimes I will pick an important image like the goanna which represents my creator Djankawu because it’s my main symbol an it reminds me how strong my people, my land, my laws, my custom is – but that’s the only reason I’ll do the traditional design. Mostly I do my own design, I do a bit of heron, because of my mother. I can do heron, I can do crocodile, squid and octopuses because they’re all my mothers. They are my mother’s, so I can do them so long as I do them in my own way – my own background design. The background design is the more important one. I can do goanna, brolga, bush turkey, rainbow lorikeet – which is never usually done in painting anyways – those things I can do as long as I do it my own way. [Dr B Marika, 1987, Aboriginal Australian View in Print and Poster, Print Council of Australia]