MAḎAYIN
Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala
Experience one of the world’s greatest artistic traditions from the perspective of those who shaped it.
Organized by the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia in partnership with the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre.
About the Exhibition
Learn MoreMaḏayin is the result of a seven-year collaboration between Kluge-Ruhe and Indigenous knowledge holders from the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre in northern Australia. It chronicles the rise of a globally significant art movement as told from the perspective of the Yolŋu people. Maḏayin presents more than 90 iconic paintings on eucalyptus bark, inviting audiences across the US to discover this inspiring story of the sacred, the beautiful, and the power of art.
Maḏayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala is organized by the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection in partnership with the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala. It opened at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth in September 2022 and is currently touring the United States.
The land has everything it needs. But it couldn’t speak. It couldn’t express itself. Tell its identity. And so it grew a tongue. That is the Yolŋu. That is me. We are the tongue of the land. Grown by the land so it can sing who it is. We exist so we can paint the land.
- Djambawa Marawili AM
Partners and Sponsors
Help us share Yolŋu art and culture with the world, in their own voices and in their own way. Your gift will bring Yolŋu artists and knowledge holders to the USA to participate in opening ceremonies and programs throughout the Madayin touring exhibition.
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