2. Noŋgirrŋa Marawili
Leading Yolŋu artist Noŋgirrŋa Marawili was born in at Darrpirra, north of Djarrakpi (Cape Shield) and today lives in Yirrkala in north-east Arnhem Land. Using organic shapes, natural and synthetic materials, Marawili reflects her understanding of her culture, history and environment in her bark paintings, prints and larrakitj (painted hollow logs).
Documenting sites on Country, Marawili captures the atmospheric effects of wind, water and lightning using residual magenta ink from cast-off printer cartridges mixed with natural pigments.
Marawili also draws inspiration from Baratjala (a Madarrpa clan estate adjacent to Djarrakpi) where she camped as a child with her father.
Noŋgirrŋa Marawili, Yolŋu people, Northern Territory, born 1938, Darrpirra, Northern Territory, Baratjala, 2019, Yirrkala, Northern Territory, earth pigments, recycled print toner pigment on stringybark, x cm; © Noŋgirrŋa Marawili/Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre.

3. – Nici Cumpston and Lisa Slade
The ‘found’ movement
‘Marawili paints daily in the courtyard of Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, wielding pigment with expressive power across bark, paper and larrakitj.’
– Nici Cumpston and Lisa Slade
Noŋgirrŋa Marawili painting Baratjala, Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala, Northern Territory, 2019; photo: David Wickens.
recycled print toner pigment, Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala, Northern Territory, 2019; photo: David Wickens.

4. Early Years & Primary Environment and Place
Marawili draws inspiration from Baratjala, where she camped as a child with her father. She captures the atmospheric effects of wind, water and lightning.
Locate Yirrkala on a map. Where is it situated within Arnhem Land? Research the climate in Yirrkala. How do the seasons there differ from the seasons where you live?
What are some things you notice about your environment when the seasons change?
Create a work of art about your favourite season.
Marawili is a painter and a printmaker. Using different media, create two works of art that draw inspiration from the place where you live.
Noŋgirrŋa Marawili, Yolŋu people, Northern Territory, born 1938, Darrpirra, Northern Territory, Baratjala, 2019, Yirrkala, Northern Territory, earth pigments, recycled print toner pigment on stringybark, x cm; © Noŋgirrŋa Marawili/Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre.

5. Primary & Secondary Environment and Place
The four bark paintings on the next slide represent the sacred power of lightning. Marawili’s father’s name of Mundukul means ‘Lightning Snake’ and is also the name of the serpent or water python that lives deep in the sea in Baratjala, the Madarrpa clan estate (her family’s home). In these paintings, she includes some of the designs depicting the manifestation of Mundukul, where the snake spits into the sky in the form of lightning (guykthun) and depicts the sea spray from crashing waves (yurr’yunna) that threaten to dislodge unmoveable rocks at the site. As Will Stubbs, Coordinator of Buku- Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, notes: ‘Guykthun also means “to make something sacred or taboo through saying magic words”. Thus Mundukul sends energy out into the sky.’
Marawili’s Country is known for its lightning strikes during the wet season, from November to April. In these four paintings, the artist captures the essence and energy of this natural phenomenon. Each painting, with its gestural line work and pulsating organic patterns, is rendered in different coloured natural earth pigments, allowing for a graduation of colour that creates a sense of movement.
The artist says that ‘the paintings I do are not sacred. I can’t steal my father’s painting. I just do my own design from the outside. Water. Rock. Rocks that stand strong, and the waves that run and crash upon the rocks. The sea spray. This is the painting I do’. Although Marawili denies any sacred intent in her works, they are emblematic of her identity, with both her own personality and ancestral background carrying through to the design (miny’tji).
– Gloria Strzelecki, Assistant Curator, Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art 
Noŋgirrŋa Marawili, Yolŋu people, Northern Territory, born 1938, Darrpirra, Northern Territory, Lightning, 2017, Yirrkala, Northern Territory, earth pigments on stringybark, x 80.0 cm; Acquisition through Tarnanthi: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art supported by BHP 2018, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, © Noŋgirrŋa Marawili/Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre.

6. Primary & Secondary Environment and Place
Noŋgirrŋa Marawili, Yolŋu people, Northern Territory, born 1938, Darrpirra, Northern Territory, Lightning, 2017, Yirrkala, Northern Territory, earth pigments on stringybark, x 77.0 cm, x 83.7 cm, x 77.7 cm, x 80.0 cm; Acquisition through Tarnanthi: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art supported by BHP 2018, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, © Noŋgirrŋa Marawili/Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre.

7. Primary & Secondary Environment and Place
Using a combination of satellite imagery, pressure maps, ocean currents and weather maps as inspiration, create a work of art inspired by the weather conditions where you live.
Choreograph a dance inspired by wind and lightning.
Make a costume that represents what the weather is like at your favourite place.
Listen to a range of weather sounds. Create a visual response to these sounds using coloured pencil, paper, pastel etc. Tip: Sounds can be found on YouTube or a sleep ambience application for Android or Apple.
Conduct a year-long art project by photographing a particular place in your school or home three times a day, every day for an entire school year. Exhibit these images as one large collaborative display. What changes do you recognise hour to hour, day to day, or month to month?
Imagine you are one of the elements. Write a story or poem from the perspective of a natural phenomenon.
Make a drawing machine that is powered by wind or water.
Noŋgirrŋa Marawili, Yolŋu people, Northern Territory, born 1938, Darrpirra, Northern Territory, Lightning, 2017, Yirrkala, Northern Territory, earth pigments on stringybark, x 77.0 cm; Acquisition through Tarnanthi: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art supported by BHP 2018, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, © Noŋgirrŋa Marawili/Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre.

8. ‘Noŋgirrŋa describes her paintings as coming from her “heart and mind”
Henry F. Skerritt, ‘The country speaks through her’, in Noŋgirrŋa Marawili: From my heart and mind, ed Cara Pinchbeck, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2018, p. 36.

9. Primary Colour
‘Noŋgirrŋa Marawili loves pink, she even found some pink string for her marwat hair brush’
Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka
Create a work of art using a monochromatic palette of your favourite colour.
Cyan, magenta, yellow and black are the four basic colours used for colour printing. Create a work of art about the place that is special to you using only cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
Noŋgirrŋa Marawili painting Baratjala, Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala, Northern Territory, 2019; photo: David Wickens.

10. Primary Colour
Magenta dye was developed in 1856 and is named after a bloody battle in the Italian town of Magenta. Today the pigment is made using the organic molecule Quinacridone and is found in outdoor paints, inkjet printer ink and laser printer toners.
What other things do you associate with the colour magenta?
Investigate the history of pigments. What surprising or unusual stories can you discover? Write a narrative poem about the life of your favourite colour.
After looking closely at Marawili’s bark paintings, what kind of music do you think would complement her work?
Noŋgirrŋa Marawili, Yolŋu people, Northern Territory, born 1938, Darrpirra, Northern Territory, Baratjala, 2019, Yirrkala, Northern Territory, earth pigments, recycled print toner pigment on stringybark, x 96.0 cm; © Noŋgirrŋa Marawili/Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre.

11. Primary & Secondary Sustainability
Marawili uses magenta pigment from discarded printer cartridges. Go on a treasure hunt in your school and locate leftover materials or items that are otherwise destined for landfill. Using these items, create a work of art responding to your local environment.
Investigate how artists collect and prepare bark before beginning their work of art.
Noŋgirrŋa Marawili with her work Baratjala, Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala, Northern Territory, 2019; photo: Nat Rogers.

12. Secondary Science
Some historical rock paintings created by Aboriginal people thousands of years ago have faded and are possibly not as vivid as they once were. Suggest reasons why they are fragile and what can be done to preserve these historical records from further deterioration. Some of Marawili’s work has been made using a combination of magenta pigment, which includes the molecule Quinacridone, and natural materials. Do you think this would make her work more or less fragile?
Research the materials that Marawili has used to create her work. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using synthetic versus natural materials?
Marawili sometimes uses a marwat, a very fine paint brush made from human hair. Examine her paintings. Can you identify where she has used different types of brushes? Find a work of art in the collection and look closely at the marks made. Did the artist apply them quickly? Did the artist use a lot of media? Based on your observations and analysis of the marks made, design a unique tool for your artist.
Noŋgirrŋa Marawili, Yolŋu people, Northern Territory, born 1938, Darrpirra, Northern Territory, Baratjala, 2019, Yirrkala, Northern Territory, earth pigments, recycled print toner pigment on stringybark, x cm;
© Noŋgirrŋa Marawili/Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre.

13. Primary & Secondary Identity
detail: Noŋgirrŋa Marawili, Yolŋu people, Northern Territory, born 1938, Darrpirra, Northern Territory, Baratjala, 2019, Yirrkala, Northern Territory, earth pigments, recycled print toner pigment on stringybark, dimensions variable; © Noŋgirrŋa Marawili/Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, photo: Rhett Hammerton.

14. Primary & Secondary Identity
A larrakitj is a hollow log created to hold the bones of people who have passed away. They are placed in groups on Country and painted with clan designs. The larrakitj in this work has been painted with the Djapu clan design of Marawili’s late husband – a fish-trap grid pattern which refers to the Djapu clan’s location of Wandawuy in East Arnhem Land. Marawili also paints the designs of her mother’s Galpu clan and those belonging to her own Madarrpa clan.
Investigate other Aboriginal artists who have used their clan designs in their work. Tip: Reko Rennie, Totemic, and OA_CAMO, 2017.
Create a design that represents your family or co- curricula team or club or group of friends. Replicate this design onto a three-dimensional object. How did the design change or alter to cover the object’s surface?
detail: Noŋgirrŋa Marawili, Yolŋu people, Northern Territory, born 1938, Darrpirra, Northern Territory, Baratjala, 2019, Yirrkala, Northern Territory, earth pigments, recycled print toner pigment on stringybark, dimensions variable; © Noŋgirrŋa Marawili/Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, photo: Rhett Hammerton.

15. Resources
Books & Articles Barron, A, The Conversation, ‘Bees can learn the difference between European and Australian Indigenous art styles in a single afternoon’, Coles, D. Chromatopia: An illustrated history of colour, Thames and Hudson, Port Melbourne, 2018 Harwood, T. The Monthly, ‘Noŋgirrŋa Marawili: From my heart and mind’, Pinchbeck, C. Noŋgirrŋa Marawili: From my heart and mind, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2018 Websites Art Gallery of New South Wales - Noŋgirrŋa Marawili Museum of Contemporary Art - Noŋgirrŋa Marawili, Lightning Videos & Podcasts Noŋgirrŋa Marawili artist portrait – YouTube Art Gallery of South Australia Cara Pinchbeck talking about Noŋgirrŋa Marawili: From my heart and mind, AGNSW
Education resources have been developed by AGSA Education in collaboration with Nici Cumpston, Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, Dr Lisa Slade, Assistant Director, Artistic Programs, Kylie Neagle, Education Officer, Thomas Readett, Tarnanthi Education Officer, and Suzanne Close, Adelaide University Museum and Curatorial Studies Intern, edited by Barry Patton.