Government House is proud to announce a showcase of Indigenous art by award-winning Yolngu artist, Nongirrna Marawili in the Dining Room.

Nongirrna Marawili was born c. 1939 and lives and works in the community at Yirrkala, Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.  She has strong connections to both the inland area of Wandawuy through her husband and through her own family to Tathikpa and Baratjala.[1]

Both a painter and printmaker, Marawili learnt how to paint on bark in the 1990s while assisting her late husband, Djutjadjutja Munungurr, a Djapu man, with his artwork. In her own practice, she incorporates elements from her Madarrpa heritage, learned from the stories shared with her by her father, Mundukul Marawili, as well as those of her late husband.

Her first significant exhibition was in 2013 at the Alcaston Gallery in Melbourne, titled ‘And I am still here’.  This was followed in 2015 by ‘All watched over’ at the James Cohan Gallery in New York.  In 2017, Marawili was featured in several exhibitions in Australia including ‘Defying Empire: 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial’ at the National Gallery of Australia; ‘Who’s Afraid of Colour’ at the National Gallery of Victoria and ‘TARNANTHI: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art’ at the Art Gallery of South Australia.  

Her first solo exhibition was in 2018-19 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales titled ‘Nongirrna Marawili: From my Heart and Mind’, which included a publication to accompany the exhibition.  In 2019 Marawili was announced as the winner of The Roberts Family Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Prize (part of the Wynne Prize 2019) at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.  That same year she also won the Telstra Bark Painting Award for ‘Lightning Strikes’ at the 36th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Awards at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.

More recently, Nongirrna Marawili was selected to participate in NIRIN, part of the 22nd Biennale of Sydney.  In 2021, her work will be included in a major exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra featuring ‘Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now’. [2]

Marawili's works are held in many collections world-wide including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, USA; Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, New Zealand and, in Australia, at the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.[3] 

The works on display in the Dining Room of Government House Sydney are on loan from the Collection of Mr Geoffrey Hassall.

Guide to works [4] 

‘Bankin (Tea Cup)’, 2015

121cm x 123cm

Medium: Ochres and fixative on board

Developed from a series of paintings completed in 2012, this work evokes the precious times of family contentment.  With happy joking and teasing after families have gone hunting they sit by the fire, cook and chat and drink cups of tea.

‘Baratjala’, 2019

242cm x 122cm

Medium: Earth pigments and recycled print toner on composite board

Baratjala is a Madarrpa clan estate adjacent to Cape Shield whose cyclonic weather, crocodile infested waters and huge ripping tides have influenced Nongirrna.  In Madarrpa culture the ‘lightning snake’ a Burrut’tji (water python or serpent) who lives deep beneath the sea spits lighting into the sky.  Some of the design work is influenced by the rocks set in deep water between the electric ‘curse’ that the snake spits into the sky. 

‘Baratjala’, 2018

214cm x 81cm

Medium: Natural earth pigment with synthetic binders on bark

Many of Nongirrna’s designs show rocks set in deep water between the electric ‘curse’ that the ‘lightning snake’ spits into the sky, and the yurr’yunna (spray of the sea) trying to shift the immovable rock foundation of the Madarrpa.

‘Baratjala’, 2019

242cm x 122cm

Medium: Earth pigments and recycled print toner on composite board

Like most of the works, this work is painted on a piece of stage board originally used by the Bangarra Dance Theatre for a production in Yirrkala.  The production was a thank you to the Yirrkala community for their generosity in sharing sacred dance with Bangarra.  Stephen Page, Bangarra Director, suggested the boards as art materials.

‘Baratjala’, 2019

242cm x 122cm

Medium: Earth pigments and recycled print toner on composite boards

This work is one of a few where Nongirrna experimented with using magenta pigment. Nongirrna had obtained a discarded print toner and extracted the colour from the cartridge. In many ways the modern adaptation of using printer toner to form mediums, echoed the long-established traditional practices of using natural pigments sourced from the environment.

‘Baratjula II’, 2015

242cm x 121cm

Medium: Natural earth pigments on MDF board

A distinctive work for its pared-back design and minimal use of crosshatching.

‘Baratjula V’, 2015

242cm x 121cm

Medium: Natural earth pigments on MDF board

Many works show the maypal (shellfish) which adhere to the rock and the dungurnaniny (barnacles) which nibble on the feet of the oyster gatherers while they perch atop these rocks.

‘Baratjala’, (2019)

Natural earth pigments on hollowed log with custom made base

Height 273cm

(Located in the Outer Hall)

This artwork is a Larrakitj or ceremonial pole. The Yolngu (Indigenous Australians living in north-eastern Arnhem Land) use Larrakitj to contain the bones of their deceased during mortuary ceremonies. Since the 1980s many Yolngu artists like Nongirrna Marawili have begun making Larrakitj for the art market.  The non-ceremonial production of Larrakitj has promoted further education and understanding of Indigenous culture and customs. Baratjala is a Madarrpa clan estate located in Arnhem land.