Barayuwa Munuŋgurr’s Steel Etchings Honour the Yolŋu Artist’s Heritage

Barayuwa Munuŋgurr’s detailed depictions of the ancestral stories of his matrilineal Munyuku clan can often be found etched onto discarded steel highway signs. It’s a hallmark of the Found movement in contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, pioneered by Yolŋu artist Gunybi Ganambarr. “He’s a very warm and kind person and he encouraged me to try it myself,” says Munuŋgurr in an interview translated by Will Stubbs, coordinator at Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre in Yirrkala, North East Arnhem Land.

Yolŋu people have been making art with reclaimed items for hundreds of years, long before white settlers arrived. “The place that I portray at Yarrinya is a recognised Maŋgatharra Marŋarr or Makassan harbour,” says Munuŋgurr, describing one of the many ports through which Makassar people from Indonesia began coming to Arnhem Land in the 17th and 18th centuries. “Our use of found metal dates back to our relations with these visitors as long ago as the 1600s.”

Those waterways are central to Munuŋgurr’s intricate, multilayered works, which often explore the creation legend of Mirinyuŋu the whale. “This is an epic song poem made up of hundreds of songs with many verses,” he explains. “It’s not written anywhere but passed down from generation to generation and only sung in ceremony.” He adds that in Yolŋu culture “it is water that holds the identity of the land, whether it be defined as the ocean or the dew in a spider web. The water holds the lore and the spirit as well as the songs. It is our deep law known only to those who have authority.”

This authority to carry on the stories – transmitted to Munuŋgurr through his maternal uncles, artists Dula and Gambali Ŋurruwuthun – is something he plans to honour in his second solo exhibition at Sullivan + Strumpf’s Sydney studio later this year. “Those men gave me instruction and authority to paint for the Munyuku. They passed the brush to me. When they died, I accepted my role to carry on their mission.”

Exhibited at: National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin; Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney

Awards: Wynne Prize finalist, 2024; Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award finalist