Aboriginal Australian memorial poles – known as larrakitj – are hollow coffins created to hold the bones of the dead in secondary burial. Placed in groups on significant sites and painted with clan symbols, they are left to deteriorate with wind and weather. Contemporary artist Wukun Wanambi (b. 1962) belongs to the Yolngu people of northern Arnhem Land and has worked innovatively with this longstanding art form for over a decade. Art is used by the Yolngu people in ceremonial performances, but also as legal documents and as a way to map the landscape and the relationships between people.
Djirrirra (also known as Yukuwa) assisted her father, Yanggarriny Wunungmurra (1932 – 2003), in his Telstra Award winning painting of 1997 and continually up to his death in 2003. She has also assisted her brother Nawurapu Wunungmurra, but now primarily paints her own works. Her father granted her this authority whilst he was alive.
Her precise hand and geometric style has increasingly attracted enthusiastic interest from the art world. As she came to the notice of Buku-Larrnggay coordinators for her exquisite hand and innovative composition, she was included in her first major exhibition and her first visit to the world outside of Arnhem Land, in a show at Raft Artspace in Darwin in 2006, which featured her and two other Gangan artists Yumutjin Wunungmurra and Waturr Gumana.
Source: Buku-Larrngay Mulka