Organized by the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection

2010s

Djambawa Marawili at Kluge-Ruhe

The 2010s saw Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka go from strength to strength. At the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Buku-Larrŋgay win a staggering twenty awards between 2010-2019. Important exhibitions in Europe, Asia and America solidify the center’s global reputation, while senior artists such as Djambawa Marawili and Wukuṉ Waṉamabi step forward as curators of their own culture.

Year By Year...

2010

Ngarra—Young Ones Portraits, a set of self-portraits made by the young people of Yirrkala, is produced during a workshop facilitated by Alicia Scobie and the local school at the Yirrkala Print Space.

Ishmael Marika is appointed creative director of the Mulka Project

Djambawa Marawili is a judge of the 27th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.

Djambawa Marawili is appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

Ḻarrakitj: Kerry Stokes Collection opens at 2014 the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, as part of the 17th Biennale of Sydney.

Djalkiri: We Are Standing on Their Names, Blue Mud Bay opens at 24HR Art, Northern Territory Centre for Contemporary Art, Parap, before traveling to museums throughout Australia in 2011–14.

Yalaŋbara: Art of the Djang’kawu, curated by Margie West and Banduk Marika, opens at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra, and travels to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and the Western Australia Museum.

2011

Annie Studd and her partner, Kade McDonald, begin working at Buku-Larrŋgay, with Studd as studio coordinator of the Yirrkala Print Space (2011–17) and McDonald as art center coordinator (2011–17).

Gunybi Ganambarr receives a Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship (2011–13) and wins the Western Australian Indigenous Art Award, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth.

2012

Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan & Levi Collection opens at the Seattle Art Museum. Djambawa Marawili, Ḻiyawaḏay Wirrpanda, Ishmael Marika, Jamie Wunuŋmurra and Will Stubbs travel to Seattle for the opening and the symposium.

Gunybi Ganambarr and Nyapanyapa Yunupiŋu are selected among 20 artists for inclusion in unDisclosed: The Second National Indigenous Art Triennial at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. The exhibition tours nationally to Cairns Regional Gallery; the Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art; University of South Australia; and the Western Plains Cultural Centre.

2013

The 1963 Thumbprint Petition is rediscovered at the Office of the House of Parliament leading up to the 50th anniversary of the Yirrkala Bark Petitions. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the surviving signatories of the petition attend the celebration in Yirrkala.

Galarrwuy Yunupiŋu wins the Lifetime Achievement Award at the National NAIDOC Awards.

Djambawa Marawili is appointed to the prime minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council for both the first and second terms (2013–present).

Found: Gunybi Ganambarr, Djirrirra Wunungmurra, Ralwurrandji Waṉambi, Baŋgaway Waṉambi, Dhurrumuwuy Marika, Galuma Maymuru, Ngalkuma Burarrwanga, Wukuṉ Waṉambi, Yalanba Waṉambi: Multi-media Works, Barks, Sculpture opens at Annandale Galleries, Sydney.

Old Masters: Australia’s Great Bark Artists opens at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra.

Yirrkala Drawings opens at the Art Gallery of New South Wales before traveling to the Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art and the Charles Darwin University Art Collection and Art Gallery.

2014

Mändawuy Yunupiŋu is posthumously appointed Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).

2015

Wukuṉ Waṉambi, Kade McDonald, and Ishmael Marika travel to London for the opening of Indigenous Australia: Enduring Civilisation at the British Museum and meet HRH Charles, the Prince of Wales.

At the Garma Festival, Galarrwuy Yunupiŋu is awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Melbourne.

14th Istanbul Biennale, Saltwater: A Theory of Thought Forms opens in Istanbul. The Thumbprint Petition is displayed publicly for the first time alongside one copy of the Yirrkala Bark Petition and Yolŋu bark paintings.

John Mawurndjul and Gulumbu Yunupiŋu: Earth and Sky opens at TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Victoria.

Djambawa Marawili AM: where the water moves, where it restsopens at Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Djambawa Marawili is artist-in-residence at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection in October. During his residency, he conceives the Maḏayin exhibition.

Balnhdhurr: A Lasting Impression opens at Light Square Gallery, Adelaide, as part of the Tarnanthi Festival. The exhibition, which showcases 20 years of printmaking at Yirrkala, travels to 14 more venues across Australia: Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Culture Centre; Godinymayin Yijard Rivers Arts & Culture Centre; Burke Gallery, Trinity College, University of Melbourne; Whitlam Institute, Western Sydney University; Cowra Regional Art Gallery; Wollongong Art Gallery; Warwick Art Gallery; Caboolture Regional Art Gallery; Bega Valley Regional Gallery; Griffith Regional Art Gallery; Tasmania Museum and Art Gallery; Bayside Arts and Cultural Centre; University of Newcastle; and Castlemaine State Festival.

2016

Gurrumul Yunupiŋu wins Artist of the Year at the National NAIDOC Awards.

Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia opens at the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Okwui Enwezor includes Mawalan Marika in the exhibition Postwar: Art between the Pacific and the Atlantic, 1945–65 at the Haus Der Kunst, Munich.

Noŋgirrŋa Marawili, Gulumbu Yunupiŋu and Nyapanyapa Yunupiŋu are included in Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia, which opens at the Newcomb Art Museum, Tulane University, New Orleans. The exhibition travels to the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art; the Nevada Museum of Art; the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC; and the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia.

2017

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Attorney General George Brandis, and Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion reject the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which calls for an Indigenous voice to be included in the Australian Constitution.

Munuy’ŋu Marika is appointed print studio coordinator at the Yirrkala Print Space.

Wukuṉ Waṉambi, Yinimala Gumana and Kade McDonald visit the United States to begin curatorial research for Maḏayin. The project is launched at the Yale Club in New York City by former prime minister Kevin Rudd. Later that year, and again in 2018 and 2019, members of the Yolŋu-led curatorial team return to continue working on the exhibition.

Gunybi Ganambarr’s work Buyku (2011) is included in the exhibition On Country: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan- Levi Gift at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Midawarr | Harvest: The Art of Mulkun Wirrpanda and John Wolseley opens at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra, before traveling to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and the Melbourne Museum.

Gapu—Moṉuk Saltwater: Journey to Sea Country opens at the National Australian Maritime Museum, Sydney.

2018

HRH Charles, the Prince of Wales, visits Arnhem Land on the final leg of his 16th Australian tour and participates in a Yiḏaki healing ceremony led by Djalu Gurruwiwi at Buku-Larrŋgay. While meeting with Wukuṉ Waṉambi and Wäka Munuŋgurr, he is presented with a mäk (message stick) on behalf of the Yolŋu that declares their sovereignty and requests that he advocate on their behalf.

Gunybi Ganambarr wins first prize at the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards for Buyku (2018). Napuwarri Marawili wins the Bark Painting Award for Baraltja Djunuŋguyaŋu Yathikpa | Dugong at Baraltja and Yathikpa (2017); Wukuṉ Waṉambi wins the Wandjuk Marika Memorial 3D Award for the multimedia installation Destiny (2018); and Patrina Liyadurrkitj Munuŋgurr wins the Multimedia Award for Dhunupa’kum nhuna wanda | Straightening Your Mind (2018).

Banduk Marika is awarded an honorary doctorate from Flinders University.

Old Masters: Australia’s Great Bark Artists opens at the National Museum of China, Beijing, before traveling to the Shanghai Natural History Museum, the Shenzhen Museum, the Sichuan Museum, and the National Taiwan Museum.

Miwatj opens at LaTrobe Art Institute Bendigo.

2019

Banduk Marika is appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO).

Djambawa Marawili wins first prize at the 36th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards for his painting Americalili Marrtji | Journey to America (2019), produced as part of the 2017–19 Kluge-Ruhe Maḏayin Commission. Noŋgirrŋa Marawili wins the Bark Painting Award for Lightning Strikes (2019); Malaluba Gumana wins the Wandjuk Marika Memorial 3D Award for Rainbows in the Lilies (2019); and Gutiŋarra Yunupiŋu wins the Multimedia Award for Gurrutu’mi Mala | My Connection (2019).

The Inside World: Contemporary Aboriginal Australian Memorial Poles from the Debra and Dennis Scholl Collection opens at Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, before traveling to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History; Fralin Museum of Art, University of Virginia; and the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum, Florida International University.

Twenty-two of the bark painting commissions from Maḏayin are exhibited in Dhawuṯ (Fly Away): The Kluge-Ruhe Maḏayin Commission 2017–2019 at the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, as part of the Tarnanthi Festival.

Pieces from this Decade