Partnering with remote Indigenous Art Centres to deliver a landmark digital project that empowers Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists to create and share unique arts and cultural experiences with the world.
Partnering with remote Indigenous Art Centres to deliver a landmark digital project that empowers Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists to create and share unique arts and cultural experiences with the world.
Bula’bula Arts supports 150 artist members from Ramingining and its surrounding outstations in North East Arnhem Land. Local artists coined the name Bula’bula—the voice of the Garrtjambal or red kangaroo—in 1989. The name represents the message in the song cycle of the red kangaroo’s journey from the Roper River to the Ramingining region. The story is depicted in unique Ramingining-style—steeped in spiritual, ritual and historical narratives across a variety of mediums: print, painting, sculpture, fibre art, song, dance, as well as film and literature mediums.
19 Warrk Rd, Ramingining NT 0822
Born: 1948
Region: Jillawiiri
Peter Gambung is on Bula’Bula Arts board of directors and is a strong advocate for the equitable treatment of Yolngu people. He continues to paint stories to help teach younger generations. His paintings consists of his Gupapuyngu clan’s story lines and song lines.
Born: 1947
Region: Ngaliyindi
Bobby Bununggurr is a singer, dancer, law man and advocate for reconciliation. His paintings are an insight into Yolngu life from both the old days and now. As well as being an incredible painter, he has starred in movies and television including Ten Canoes and Black As. He was the recent recipient Taiwan Indigenous Artist in Resident visiting the Taiwan Indigenous Peoples’ Cultural Park, Pingtung, 2019. A song man for his community, Bununggurr also toured nationally and internationally with David Gulpilil in the 1970s and 1980s.
Born: 1959
Region: Ngaliyindi
Joy Burruna is a mid career and highly sort after artist. She loves to paint stories about Morning Star, the very special and spiritual ceremony that is particular to her family and a few other clans in this region. She also paints the King Brown snake, lizards and fruit bats as well as fresh water stories about long neck turtles and crocodiles. These stories are part of her family knowledge.
Born: 2001
Region: Ngilipitji
Taris Ashley is an early career artist and artsworker at Bula’Bula Arts. He became an online sensation alongside Taris Gadawarr for their dancing and screenprinting video that received over 3 million views. His motto is “no serious face”.
Born: 1980
Region: Ngaliyindi
Andrew Wanamilil is Bula’Bula Arts current Chairperson. He is the son of renowned artist Bobby Bununggurr and learnt to paint at an early age by watching his bapa (father). Wanamilil enjoys painting story lines and song lines connected to his Ganalbingu clan of Ngaliyindi.
Born: 1984
Region: Ngaliyindi
Angela Banyawarra(2) is Bula’Bula Arts current Vice Chair. She is the daughter of acclaimed artist Bobby Bununggurr and learnt to paint at an early age by watching her bapa (father). Banyawarra(2) enjoys painting story lines and song lines connected to her Ganalbingu clan of Ngaliyindi.
Born: 1978
Region: Ngaliyindi
Joy Malibirr is an early career fibre artist mother of a young son. She was taught to weave by the generations before her and continues to carry on Yolngu traditional weaving practices.
Born: 1955
Region: Ngaliyindi
Margaret Djarrbalabal is a senior fibre artist at Bula’Bula Arts. She is an excellent weaver who is renowned for her balgurr (kurrajong) fibre creations, compared to gunga (pandanus) which is primarily used amongst Yolngu fibre artists. She is very adept in choosing the perfect leaves and bark to make her remarkable weavings and undoubtedly one of the best natural bush string makers on the Lands.
Bábbarra Women’s Centre (Maningrida) and Tharangini Studio (Bengalaru) are together redefining the boundaries of traditional artistry with their ground-breaking woodblock textile collaboration. In 2023, senior Kuninjku artists, Janet Marawarr and Deborah Wurrkidj from Bábbarra…
Across Aranda Country, the continuation of culture through art making is alive and ongoing.[1] Guided by the teachings of ancestors and kin, and a resounding urge to depict Country in the manner of…
In early 2022, we received a call from the senior curator of Indigenous and Australian Art at the National Gallery of Victoria, Myles Russell-Cook, who had seen a weaving by Indra Prudence at the previous…
“There isn’t a more skilled set of peoples to find in rural and remote communities than those in the art centres so the easiest way to learn about anything to do with that area is…
Artists at Iltja Ntjarra Art Centre are Western Aranda people and paint their Country using the watercolour techniques passed on by Albert Namatjira down family lines, known as the Hermannsburg School of painting. The Country…
Sitting in the shade at Angurugu Women’s Art Centre, a group of Anindilyakwa women listen to visitors who have travelled far to meet with them on Groote Eylandt, located in the Gulf of Carpentaria in…
Nestled alongside the Musgrave Ranges in Pukatja community in the remote north-west of South Australia, Ernabella Arts on the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands is the oldest continuously running Indigenous art centre in Australia. In…
Fibre art holds a deep and venerated tradition within Yolŋu culture and the weavers of Arnhem Land, with the core material used being Gunga (Pandanus spiralis). The Rrambaŋi (Gunga Mat) installation at the 2023…
Song rings out through the art centres as an Elder sings the story of the Country they are painting, renewing their Country while teaching the story to any in earshot; sometimes when this happens people…
UPLANDS is an immersive digital project that has been designed to celebrate Indigenous Art Centres and share Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artistic and cultural practices with the world.
This large scale immersive digital mapping project features over twenty remote Indigenous Art Centres, and interviews with over 150 Indigenous artists and arts workers from across the country.
UPLANDS is a project by Agency and has been funded by the Australian Government through the Restart to Invest, Sustain and Expand (RISE) program and the Indigenous Visual Art Industry Support (IVAIS) program.
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Sovereign Custodians of the land on which we live and work. We extend our respects to their Ancestors and all First Nations peoples and Elders past, present, and future.
