Wandjuk Marika

Wandjuk Djuwakan Marika OBE (1927 or 1930 – 16 June 1987), was an Aboriginal Australian painter, actor, composer and Indigenous land rights activist. He was a member of the Rirratjingu clan of the Yolngu people of north-east Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia, and the son of Mawalan 1 Marika.

Early life Wandjuk Djuakan Marika was born in 1927 (or 1930 He was the eldest son of Mawalan 1 Marika and his wife Bamatja, He was a member of the Rirratjingu group of the Yolngu people. During childhood, he travelled throughout Arnhem Land by foot and by canoe. Through his parents, he learned to respect his country and inherited extensive rights to land through his father, who was a clan leader.

Marika was educated and learned English at the Methodist Overseas Mission at Yirrkala, which was established in 1935.

In a 1974 Marika was distressed to discover that an earlier painting, Sea life (Dreaming of the artist’s mother) (1959) had been turned into a tea towel. He discovered the reproduction in a store in Cairns (which had been manufactured in Holland) when on a trip there. He said at the time: “I was shocked when I walked into that shop, and when I saw it I was shocked and break my heart”. This painting expresses elements of his mother's Warramirri clan Dreaming and he was so distressed by this incident that he stopped painting for years; In the Aboriginal News in 1976, Wandjuk wrote "It is not that we object to people reproducing our work, but it is essential that we be consulted first, for only we know if a particular painting is of special sacred significance, to be seen only by certain members of a tribe, and only we can give permission for our works of art to be reproduced."

Once he became an established artist, Marika was recognised as a member of the Aboriginal Arts Advisory Committee of the Australian Council for the Arts between the years 1970 and 1973. a post he held until 1979.

As an actor, Marika appeared in the films Where the Green Ants Dream (1984) and Initiation (1987). He also appeared in the television miniseries Women of the Sun. He was both actor and composer in the 1984 German film Where the Green Ants Dream.

He was the author of The Aboriginal Children's History of Australia. Marika also wrote an autobiography with co-author Jennifer Isaacs entitled Wandjuk Marika: Life Story (1995). In this book, he intentionally did not include sacred information that could not be known by children, women, and balanda, understanding that this book was for a public audience and it was his responsibility to protect that sacred knowledge. Marika died in 1987, prior to the book being published, and Isaacs waited the appropriate amount of time (as determined by his community) to publish his work in 1995.

Activism Marika wrote frequent but unsuccessful letters to the Australian federal government to protest against mining activities on Yolngu lands.

Following the appropriation of his sacred clan designs on a line of Dutch tea towels, Marika became concerned with the intellectual and cultural property rights of Indigenous Australians. The reproduction of these designs disrespected the sacred knowledge of his people and were being sold primarily for their aesthetic value, rather than a cultural one. Marika lobbied for the creation of the Aboriginal Artists th in 1973 to protect the copyright of Aboriginal artists and Indigenous intellectual property.

Recognition and honours

In 1979 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.

A photographic portrait of Marika by Juno Gemes (1979) hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, and several of his paintings feature in the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

His art is also featured in the Madayin exhibition which is on tour in the United States from 2022-2025 and encompasses eight decades of artistic production at Yirrkala, from 1935 to the present. His painting titled "The Birth of the Djan'kawu Children at Yalaŋbara" is represented in the exhibition.

Personal life and death His son Mawalan 2 Marika is also an artist, and his daughter is Rarriwuy Marika. Wandjuk Marika was the uncle of Raymattja Marika.

Marika died on 16 June 1987.