Wayilkpa Maymuru is a Yolŋu artist of the Maŋgalili clan and a member of Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, the artist's work references the settlement of her homeland Djarrakpi by ancestral heroes, telling their story of death, rest and rebirth to the sky.
Selected Works
Selected Works
bark painting
50 × 38.5 cm
(WM2024-08)
bark painting
87 × 74.5 cm
(WM2024-04)
bark painting
65 × 50 cm
(WM2024-14)
bark painting
42 × 73 cm
(WM2024-12)
About
Wayilkpa Maymuru
Biography
Wayilkpa Maymuru is a Yolŋu artist of the Maŋgalili clan and a member of Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, the artist's work references the settlement of her homeland Djarrakpi by ancestral heroes, telling their story of death, rest and rebirth to the sky.
Wayilkpa’s father is Banapana, Narritjin’s second son. In the mid 1970’s Banapana helped his father establish an outstation on Maŋgalili land at Djarrakpi. Like his brothers and sisters, he was urged to watch his father painting after school and, taught by this great artist, developed into a fine artist himself. In 1978 he and his father spent three months as Visiting Artists at the Australian National University, Canberra.
Wayilkpa has only recently taken up the artist legacy that she holds.
“Her paintings have a complex symbolism, they represent ancestral stories in symbolic narratives, often composed in bands. Similar elements occur across the paintings, with different but related meanings. Similarly to her father and grandfather, her art is a means to communicate ideas and knowledge to an external audience and a means of ensuring the continuity of ancestral law.”
– Courtesy Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre
Wayilkpa Maymuru, 2024. Courtesy Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre
Sullivan+Strumpf acknowledge the Indigenous People of this land, the traditional custodians on whose Country we work, live and learn. We pay respect to Elders, past and present, and recognise their continued connection to culture, land, waters and community.