She is also an artist, painting on bark, memorial poles, and didgeridoos, and she also has skills in carving, weaving, and printmaking, which have been shown in exhibitions in Australia and Asia.
[11] According the ceremonial beliefs of some Aboriginals from Arnhem land, Bäru connected the clans when he created fire for the first time it across the water.
In the early 1980s, Marawili began painting, incorporating the idea of buwuyak, which means faintness or emergence[14], in his works, which was an innovative change in the Yolngu art tradition.
Although Marawili is an innovative Aboriginal artist, he does paint most frequently using traditional ochre, a natural pigment, and a paintbrush made using a small piece of hair tied to a stick.
[4] His works also often show the Yathikpa ancestral story of the bay where Bäru, the crocodile, transformed himself from a human to animal form, plunging into the water in a blaze of flames.
[17] Because his works capture tradition and historical meanings, the paintings of Marawili are also used as a source of history and records, especially in the legal battle to protect the right of the Yolngu land.
[9] His paintings that portray sacred traditional designs demonstrate the right and purpose to speak for and protect their sea and land.
When considering the response to the exhibition of barks in the USA, he praised the American recognition of the timeless essence of ancient Yolŋgu culture and symbols, along with their connection to the land.
The show featured eighty works by Yolngu artists depicting their ancestral clan designs, in response to the failed legal cases and harmful treatment of Blue Mud Bay by poachers and trespassers.
The show began with an incident from October 1996, when Wäka Munungurr discovered illegal barramundi fishing while inspecting the sacred place of Garranali.
[20] Djambawa Marawili spearheaded the show and continued to create works as visual assertions of Yolngu rights to the sea.
This incident took place in the very heart of the Madarrpa's revered territory, which is considered the mythical nesting site of their sacred crocodile totem, Baru.
They expressed these profound ties through elaborate patterns and designs known as Miny'tji, creating a remarkable series of paintings now known as the 'Saltwater Collection'.
However, they appealed the decision in 2008 the Yolngu people gained legal ownership to the intertidal zone, between high and low tide marks.
Nhulunbuy, the large bauxite mine, is only 100 meters from Lawnhapuy Homelands and about three hours from Blue Mud Bay, where Marawili lives.
This was very concerning for Marawili and he worries about the absence of work opportunities for the Yolngu people, the decline in education, and the increase in health problems.
[6] Among Djambawa Marawili's most notable artworks is his 2019 piece, Journey to America, for which we won first prize at the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.
[16] Djambawa Marawili has spearheaded the effort of Yolngu people and artists in making connections with the United States art realm, as seen through his history with the University of Virginia.
In Journey to America, Marawili portrays a fusion of Aboriginal culture and artistic motifs with symbols of the European world like the Statue of Liberty.
On the back of Bäru and throughout the rest of the painting, Djambawa Marawili portrays the chained diamond design which is common throughout the Yirritja moiety's art and culture.
UVA Law students had the opportunity to witness and learn from his experience with the Blue Mud Bay sea rights case.
Djambawa's relationship with the University of Virginia and the greater Charlottesville area is a microcosm of the connection between Aboriginal Art and the European world.
The songs are listed below Outside of his life as an artist, Marawili has served in many leadership roles to support and bring an awareness to the Indigenous community.
These include the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA) first in 1996, and then again in 2019 with Journey to America, a stringybark piece.