16. Gulwirri 15I, 2016 (14/20)
"Gulwirri is the bush potato we used to eat long time ago. In the old times we used to hunt everywhere for it especially near the fresh water because that is where we find Gulwirri (Bush potato). We used to have it after eating Miyapunu (turtle) or any kind of bush meat. But these days no one is interested in hunting for Gulwirri because of what the white man brought us, like flour (to make damper) and the other sorts of food like tinned food and take-aways."
Printed November 2012
- Screenprint on MAGNANI PESCIA paper
- Dimensions: 49 x 66cm
- Cat No. 134-16-14/20
Ms M. Wirrpanda was a senior artist of the Dhudi-Djapu clan from Dhuruputjpi in Eastern Arnhem Land and was a classificatory daughter of the late Dhäkiyarr Wirrpanda and mother (by kinship) to senior artist and clan leader Djambawa Marawili. Wirrpanda painted Dhudi-Djapu miny’ji (sacred designs) that depicted her land at Dhuruputjpi, including the areas of Yalata and Darrangi.
As the eldest and most knowledgeable of her clan, she was acknowledged as a leader, one of the few Yolnu women to have this status. Wirrpanda was an early practitioner of works without figurative imagery within the miny’tji (sacred clan design) – until recently restricted to ceremonial use – using natural earth pigments (Ochres). She painted on bark, ‘Larrakitj’ (memorial poles), ‘Yidaki’ (didgeridoo) and was a talented carver, weaver and print maker.
Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre is the Indigenous community controlled art centre of Northeast Arnhem Land. Located in Yirrkala, a small Aboriginal community on the northeastern tip of the Top End of the Northern Territory, approximately 700km east of Darwin. The primarily Yolŋu (Aboriginal) staff of around twenty services Yirrkala and the approximately twenty-five homeland centres in the radius of 200km.
In the 1960’s, Narritjin Maymuru set up his own beachfront gallery from which he sold art that now graces many major museums and private collections. He is counted among the art centre’s main inspirations and founders, and his picture hangs in the museum. His vision of Yolŋu-owned business to sell Yolŋu art that started with a shelter on a beach has now grown into a thriving business that exhibits and sells globally.
Today Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre consists of two divisions; the Yirrkala Art Centre which represents Yolŋu artists exhibiting and selling contemporary art and The Mulka Project which acts as a digital production studio and archiving centre incorporating the museum.
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