Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre – sharing Yolgnu art with the world

The Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre in Yirrkala community, Northern Territory is one of the largest and most successful art centres in Australia. Representing more than 300 Yolngu artists from the Yirrkala community and surrounding homelands, the centre continues to send art throughout Australia and the world.

The centre has received core operational support through the Australian Government’s Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support (IVAIS) programme since 1998-99, and also receives funding to employ Indigenous language and arts workers.

Will Stubbs has worked as an art coordinator at the centre for many years. When we spoke to Will on 30 January 2015, he said, “As of today, we have multiple exhibitions showing: one in an avant garde inner urban art space; one in a top Australian commercial gallery; one in a major State gallery and one in a private US gallery in Aspen, Colorado.”

“Our media centre is shooting a short documentary for an ABC commission. Our print space is celebrating 20 years with a lithography workshop. The yidaki (didjeridu) section is hosting a Japanese buyer.”

“We have a visiting Indigenous curator selecting work for a major art award. Tomorrow will be another day with different activities.”

Dating back to the 1960s when Narritjin Maymuru set up his own beachfront commercial gallery, the centre is a base for a number of major Australian artists. They include Gulumbu Yunupingu, (c1943-2012), one of eight Aboriginal artists whose work is represented at the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris, and the 2004 winner of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Also based at the centre are artists such as Banduk Marika, Gunybi Ganambarr, Djambawa Marawili and Yanggarriny Wunungmurra, who have collectively won many prestigious art awards, and whose work is held in all major Australian and many international collections.

Indigenous-owned art centres provide training, economic development, leadership and employment opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. They also support the production and marketing of Indigenous art and assist to pass down stories of law and culture through the generations.

Will Stubbs is certain about the reasons for the success of this centre and others like it around Australia.

“Art centres are an Australian invention and there is nothing globally that operates on this model. Government support exists to catalyse innovation and self-reliance, not to blunt it,” Will said.

“The majority of our income is self-generated. It is a two way street. Remote indigenous intellectual leaders are engaging with mainstream principles in the course of sharing their own values with a curious dominant culture.”