Gawirrin Gumana AO (1935–2016) was an important cultural leader of the Yolngu people and an Aboriginal Australian bark painter known for his use of rarrk.
[2] It was on one of these journeys, Garwirrin noted to writer Nicholas Rothwell, that his father discovered dead bodies of their fellow clan mates from a dispute over a sacred waterhole with a white overlanding party.
[5] Gawirrin was involved in a range of initiatives aimed at preserving and promoting Aboriginal culture, and was a vocal critic of the Australian government policies that he believed undermined the sovereignty and autonomy of the Yirrkala people in Arnhem Land.
[7] In 1992, Gumana was ordained a minister of the Uniting Church, as one of the significant leaders, painters and ceremonial elder of the Yolngu people.
He would create paintings that are focused around the sacred watering hole, Blue Mud Bay, and the story of the ancestral hero, Laintjun.
He uses his authority as a senior artist to create paintings of the coastline, showing how the water changes from the presence of the Djan'kawu Creators, the Sisters, manifested physically as the catfish Walwaltjpa.
These panels were created by senior Yolngu community elders to proclaim the law and culture of the Yolgnu people long before the missionaries arrived in Arnhem Land.
[17] In 1996, Gawirrin Gumana, as well as other Yolngu artists, produced a collection of 80 bark paintings to outline the rules of their coastal waters.
Depicted on this memorial pole is Barama, an ancestral Yolngu being, at the sacred watering hole located in Blue Mud Bay found in Arnhem Land, and Captain Cook, an Australian settler planting his flag.
He includes sacred designs flowing downward towards the earth as a way to show that Barama's law still rules Yolngu land.
This purpose of this artwork is to show that the beliefs and rights of the people of Arnhem land, coupled with the differing world views of present-day Australia remains a challenge for both parties.