Gawirrin Gumana AO (1935–2016) was an important cultural leader of the Yolngu people and an Aboriginal Australian bark painter known for his use of rarrk.

Biography

Gawirrin Gumana was born in North Eastern Arnhem Land c. 1935 with a Yirritja moiety, where he was an Indigenous Australian artist, cultural leader, and advocate for the rights of Indigenous Australians in Arnhem Land. He was the eldest son of the Dhalwangu Clan leader Birrikitji. During the 1960s, Gawirrin Gumana battled leprosy, which left his body crippled.^[1] Gawirrin was involved in a range of initiatives aimed at preserving and promoting Aboriginal culture, and was a vocal critic of the Australian government policies that he believed undermined the sovereignty and autonomy of the Yirrkala people in Arnhem Land. ^[2] He was the oldest surviving painter connected to the Yirrkala Church Panels.^[3]

Gumana was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2003 Australia Day Honours in recognition of his "service to the community as a cultural ambassador and religious leader promoting understanding, sharing and mutual respect, to the reconciliation process, and to the arts as a significant contributor to Australia's indigenous artistic heritage".^[4]

Art

Gawirrin Gumana's bark art shows the use of rarrk, a form of crosshatching that he perfected. Crosshatching is the use of diagonal lines, in a pattern in which the lines cross each other in an x pattern, to provide depth and texture to a painting. The topics in his paintings would often include ancestral animals such as turtles, fish, crayfish, and herons. He would create paintings that are focused around the sacred watering hole, Blue Mud Bay, and the story of the ancestral hero, Laintjun. The ancestral hero Laintjun taught the meaning of the diamond pattern to the Dhalwangu clan, bringing with him the Yirritja totems. As an artist, he perfected the depiction of water in motion. He uses his authority as a senior artist to create paintings of the coastline, showing how the water changes from the presence of the Djan'kawu Creators, the Sisters, manifested physically as the catfish Walwaltjpa.^[5]

Gawirrin was one of the painters for the Yirrkala Church Panels of the Yirritja moiety. These panels were created by senior Yolngu community elders to proclaim the law and culture of the Yolgnu people long before the missionaries arrived in Arnhem Land. ^[6] He was the last surviving member of the group that painted the panels in 1962 until his death in 2016. These historic church panels can be viewed at the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Yirrkala Art Centre.

Political activism through art

A large focus of Gawirrn Gumana's art was centered around political activism related to the land rights of the people of Arnhem Land. In response to the Australian government's approval for a Swiss mining company to mine on Yolngu land in the 1960s, the senior Yolngu leaders drafted the Yirrkala bark petitions. The bark paintings consisted of one Yirritja bark and one Dhuwa bark to represent the two moieties of the Yolngu nation. They were crafted on two pieces of stringybark, surrounded by sacred designs, and included the Yolngu and English languages.^[7] Gawirrin was responsible for recording the claims to land made by the elders for the Yirritja bark. Ultimately, the Australian government did not recognize the Yolgnu people's right to the land as they claimed the land was Terra Nullius. ^[8]

In 1996, Gawirrin Gumana, as well as other Yolngu artists, produced a collection of 80 bark paintings to outline the rules of their coastal waters. The decision to make these paintings was sparked by illegal fishing occurring in Blue Mud Bay. These barks served as an official movement to open a federal court case into gaining the rights to the waters along their coastline. For the Yolngu people, these bark paintings are equivalent to legal deeds. Initially, their motion for ownership was rejected, but in 2008, they appealed the decision, resulting in a landmark court case granting them ownership and control over their costal waters in Northern Arnhem Land.^[9]

In 2002, Gawirrin created a larrakitj representing the coexistence and reconciliation between Barama and Captain Cook. Depicted on this memorial pole is Barama, an ancestral Yolngu being, at the sacred watering hole located in Blue Mud Bay found in Arnhem Land, and Captain Cook, an Australian settler planting his flag. He shows two faces, but does not specify which face belongs to which person. He includes sacred designs flowing downward towards the earth as a way to show that Barama's law still rules Yolngu land. This purpose of this artwork is to show that the beliefs and rights of the people of Arnhem land, coupled with the differing world views of present-day Australia remains a challenge for both parties.^[10]

Collections

• Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection^[11]
• National Gallery of Victoria^[12]
• Australian National Maritime Museum^[13]
• National Museum of Australia^[14]

References

Further reading

• Gawirrin Gumana v Northern Territory of Australia (No. 2)
• Appeal in Blue Mud Bay (Gumana)