Wandjuk Marika

Wandjuk Marika OBE (1927–1987), was an Australian Aboriginal painter, actor, composer and land rights activist. He was a member of the Rirratjingu clan of the Yolngu people of north-east Arnhem Land, Northern Australia.[1][2][3]

Wandjuk Marika

OBE
Born1927 (1927)
Died16 June 1987 (aged 56–57)
MonumentsWandjuk Marika 3D Memorial Award
Other namesWandjuk Djuwakan Marika, MBE, Eldest Son of Mawalan, Wondjuk, Wanjug, Wondjug, Djuakan
Known forPainting, Indigenous Australian art
ChildrenMawalan #2 Marika (son), Rarriwuy Marika (daughter)
Parent(s)
  • Mawalan Marika (father)
RelativesBanduk Marika (sister), Dhuwarrwarr Marika (sister), Laklak Marika (sister), Bayngul Marika (sister)

Early life

Wandjuk Djuakan Marika was born in 1927 on Bremer Island (Dhambaliya) in the Northern Territory.[4] He was the eldest son of Mawalan Marika and his wife Bamatja.[1][4] Marika was a member of the Rirratjingu group of the Yolngu people.[4] Marika was educated at the Methodist Overseas Mission at Yirrkala.[4]

Career

His paintings expressed his people's traditional religious beliefs, and included Djang'kawu Story (1960) and Birth of the Djang'kawu Children of Yelangbara (1982).[2][5] Djang'kawu is the founding ancestor of the Riratjingu in traditional stories.[1]

He co-founded the Aboriginal Arts Board in 1973, and became Chairman in 1976.[6] He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire that same year.[7]

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.[8] His portrait hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra,[9] and several of his paintings feature in the Art Gallery of New South Wales.[2]

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.[10]

He was the author of The Aboriginal Children's History of Australia.[11]

Activism

Marika wrote frequent but unsuccessful letters to the Australian federal government to protest against mining activities on Yolngu lands.[2] In August 1963 he helped to send the first of several bark petitions to the Commonwealth government protesting the decision to grant mining leases on the Gove Peninsula.[4] The Bark Petition was the first Indigenous document to be officially recognised and accepted by the Australian Parliament.[12][13]

Marika lobbied for the creation of the Aboriginal Artists Agency in 1973 to protect the copyright of Aboriginal artists and Indigenous intellectual property.[4]

Personal life

Wandjuk Marika was the uncle of Raymattja Marika.[7]

Further reading
  • Wandjuk Marika: Life Story, by Jennifer ISAACS, University of Queensland Press, ISBN 0-7022-2564-9, 1995

References
  1. MARIKA, Wandjuk, "Foreword", in ISAACS, Jennifer, Australian Dreaming: 40,000 Years of Aboriginal History, 1980, ISBN 0-7254-0884-7, p.5
  2. Wandjuk Marika, AGNSW collection record, Art Gallery of New South Wales
  3. "Wandjuk Marika", Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1 December 2003
  4. Isaacs, Jennifer, "Marika, Wandjuk Djuakan (1927–1987)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 16 June 2018
  5. "Wandjuk Marika", The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art, Oxford University Press
  6. Australia Council, Annual Report, 1976/77 (Canberra: AGPS, 1978), pp 7 and 8.
  7. "Wandjuk Marika", Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1 December 2003
  8. "24th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award", Northern Territory government website
  9. National Portrait Gallery
  10. Wandjuk Marika on IMDb
  11. MARIKA, Wandjuk, The Aboriginal Children's History of Australia, Rigby, ISBN 0-7270-0236-8, 1977
  12. E, Smith, Diane (2004). "From Gove to governance: reshaping Indigenous governance in the Northern Territory". hdl:1885/43214. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  13. Vincent, Eve; Neale, Timothy (21 March 2016). "Unstable relations: a critical appraisal of indigeneity and environmentalism in contemporary Australia". The Australian Journal of Anthropology. 28 (3): 301–323. doi:10.1111/taja.12186. ISSN 1035-8811.
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