Thompson Yulidjirri

Thompson Yulidjirri (1930–2009) was an Aboriginal Australian artist of the Kunwinjku people of western Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. Yulidjirri was renowned for his wide knowledge of ancestral creation narratives and ceremony, his painting skills and mentorship of young artists at the Injalak Arts and Crafts centre.

Biography Thompson Yulidjirri was born in 1930 and raised on Croker Island by the artist Paddy Compass Namadbara, who adopted Yulidjirri after his parents' death at a young age. Yulidjirri worked at a saw mill in Murgenella as a teen and on the barge that dropped supplies to communities along the coast from Darwin. While he would paint, he would tell select young men around him the stories he was painting and teach them his techniques. He described the purpose of these paintings as "decoration and education," using painting to illustrate stories and teach children about local culture.

In the early 1990s, Thompson Yulidjirri come to the Injalak Arts and began teaching young men as he worked.

One article describes a painting style used among this generation as "Yulidjirri mode." This style features figures with long, articulated limbs and beak-like mouths and cross-hatching known as rarrk. The use of rarrk is connected to the Madayin ceremony, meaning that when it is featured in works, there is a hidden meaning in its depiction about the artist's clan. Using rarrk in his works allowed Yulidjirri to combine tradition and ancestral power with the contemporary.

In 1988, Yulidjirri traveled to Los Angeles for the opening of the exhibition Dreams and Life at Caz Gallery in West Hollywood. Along with fellow artist Bobby Barrdjaray Nganjmirra, Yulidjirri painted a two-sided piece of slate measuring over 7 feet tall and more than 5 feet wide. The work was purchased by American businessman John W. Kluge, an Aboriginal arts collector and the founder of Metromedia, In 1997, Yulidjirri was invited to create an imitation rock shelter at the Australian Museum in Sydney. For many years, the work was the centerpiece of the museum's Indigenous Australian display. Accompanied by Yulidjirri’s narration, "Mimi" incorporated music, dance, stilt-work and visual effects to explore a metaphorical journey where spirits and humans meets at significant points through time.

In 2001, Yulidjirri also collaborated with the Marrugeku Company on an intercultural performance called Crying Baby. A combination of stilt dancing, music, and visual effects, the performance tells the story of Australia's colonization, weaving contemporary, historical, and djang (dreaming) stories from Western Arnhem land. Instead of writing a script for Crying Baby, Yulidjirri narrated the performance with his own stories, relating his journey through life as an orphan to the Stolen Generations, Djang (dreaming), and the history of Reverend John Watson. The production, which incorporated indigenous dancers from Western Australia and Kunwinjku dancers and musicians from Arnhem Land, travelled to Holland, Belgium and Ireland after its successful premiere at the Perth International Arts Festival in 2001

Yulidjirri has found much success in painting; his works can be found in some of the most prestigious collections, he has been a NATSIAA finalist on multiple occasions, and his art hangs in Darwin Airport. Yulidjirri painted this based on a story taught to him by another painter, Midjawmidjaw. In the story, the Black Crow made a fish trap. In Kunwinjku culture, fibre has both ceremonial and practical roles, and is central to the belief systems of the region. Alongside their ceremonial associations, baskets, dilly bags, and other fibre forms are linked with the ancestral stories that pervade Kunwinjku life. According to Yulidjirri, the "Yingarna" figure, or the "Rainbow Serpent" is the ancestor whose journey resulted in the creation of Indigenous people in Arnhem Land by dispersing them in fibre dilly bags near Injalak Hill. National Gallery of Australia National Gallery of Victoria National Museum of Australia