Draft:Barayuwa Munuŋgurr

Barayuwa Munuŋgurr (Born in 1980 ; also known as Djirkurrul, Gulukurru, Munuŋgurr is also sometimes spelled Mununggurr) is a Yolŋu (also written Yolngu) artist and craftsman of the Gupa-Djapu Clan. He and his wife, Whaiora Tukaki, work at the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Art Center in Yirrkala in Northern Arnhem Land.

Life
Munuŋgurr was born in Wandawuy outstation, near Caledon Bay, Yirrkala, Northern Territory and raised in Wän̲d̲a (also called Wän̲d̲awuy), the homeland of the Djapu clan. He is the grandson of Wonggu Mununggurr and Djimbaryun Ŋurruwutthun and while is of the Dhuwa Moiety through his father in the Djapu clan, he is also a custodian of the designs and Songlines from of the Munyuku and Lamamirri of the Yirritja moiety, an inheritance from his mother, Beŋgitj Ŋurruwutthun.

Art
Barayuwa Munuŋgurr is most recognized for his artwork depicting stories from the Munyuku clan through Yothu Yindi — the Yolŋu Matha term for the custodial relationship a person has with their mother clan. He has focused on the ancestral stories tied to the Yarrinya saltwater estate, featuring the story of the hunting and murder of their ancestral whale called Mirinyuŋu by spirit brothers of the clan. His artwork about Yarrinya, a sacred site in Blue Mud Bay, plays with the surface qualities of the water through intricate miny’tji patterns, obscuring the knives of the brothers, turned to the sharp marine reefs of the sacred site. This technique of submerging significant meaning under complex designs and patterns is referred to as buwayak, and since 2013 this has become a characteristic part of his work. Reoccurring figural elements in works with this theme include whale bones, saltwater and its associated sacred designs, knives/sharp reefs, and octopus. His paintings are on Eucalyptus tetrodonta bark, painted with natural pigments using marwat, or a traditional fine line paintbrush made with human hair.

Barayuwa’s Yarrinya paintings as a major representative of the Munyuku clan stories are featured in the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection’s Mad̲ayin exhibition, an indigenous-led retrospective on the eighty year history of Yolngu bark painting conceived by Djambawa Marawili and curated by Wukun Wanambi and Yinimala Gumana.

Working as a long-time staff member at Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre, Munuŋgurr developed a skill for painting by touching-up the works of other artists at the art center. He was soon encouraged to paint his own works due to his steady hands and aptitude for mark making, and began with small barks, soon scaling up to much larger projects. He is known for his interest in innovation, being an early adopter of the Found movement, in which Yolŋu artists embrace aluminum signs as a “found on the land” medium for their works. Aside from traditional bark painting and aluminum etching, other media Mununggurr has been known to work in include printmaking, woodworking, and sculpture, as well as making traditional instruments (yidaki, bilma), tools (galpu, gara) and ḻarrakitj (or memorial poles).

Munuŋgurr has collaborated with artist Ruark Lewis since 2009, resulting in several exhibitions: Rambangi: Together as Equals at Northern Center for Contemporary Art as well as Living Waters at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco in June 2016 in which Barayuwa covered the fiberglass whale on permanent display with patterns from his Yarrinya paintings.

Since 2013, Munuŋgurr has been a finalist the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art awards (NATSIAA), MAGNT Darwin

Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions


 * First solo show was at Indigenart in Perth in 2009
 * Yarrinya — New works from Barayuwa Munuŋgurr, Outstation Gallery, August 2015.
 * Hidden Foundation — Barayuwa Munungurr, Outstation Gallery, Darwin, Northern Territory Australia.
 * Yarrinya, Sullivan+Strumpf Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia (2024)

Group Exhibitions


 * Young Guns II, Annandale Galleries (2008)
 * Ruark Lewis: Survey Part ll - Collaborations (1987 -2013) (with Barayuwa Mununggurr and Jonathan Jones), Macquarie University Art Gallery, Sydney (2013)
 * Primavera 2014: Young Australian Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia, (2014)
 * Rambangi: Together as Equals, Northern Center for Contemporary Art (2015)
 * Eaux Vivantes Living Waters, the Oceanographic Museum Monaco, Summer 2016
 * The Inside World: Contemporary Aboriginal Memorial Poles from the Debra and Dennis Scholl Collection (2019-2020).
 * Murrnginy a Story of Metal From the East (August 7th - Sept 25th 2021)
 * Mad̲ayin: Waltjan̲ Ga Waltjan̲buy Yolnuwu Miny'tji Yirrkalawuy (Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting From Yirrkala), Kluge-Ruhe Collection at the Fralin Museum of Art, Charlottesville, VA, U.S.A. (2024)