PAINTING NOW | Dhukumul Wanambi
- Dhukumul Wanambi
- 4—28 Dec 2025
- Download now
- Eora / Sydney
Yirrkala-based artist Dhukumul Waṉambi brings ancestral songlines into motion with Marrakulu Monuk – an animated digital painting that translates her clan’s sacred saltwater miny’tji into luminous, swirling form. “Instead of painting Marrakulu Monuk onto bark with ochres, I wanted to make it digital while staying true to our traditions,” says the artist, who works as a filmmaker and digital artist with The Mulka Project.
Using a self-made digital brush that mimics the fine marwat of Yolŋu bark painting, Waṉambi animates the infinite movement of her Marrakulu homeland’s waters at Gurka’wuy. “My father inspired me to make paintings like this,” she notes of the late artist and cultural leader Mr Waṉambi. “He was the first to take miny’tji that are normally painted onto bark and burial poles, and make them move.”
By transposing cultural knowledge and a time-honoured visual language into the digital realm, Waṉambi continues her father’s legacy of artistic innovation – a mantle shared by her sister, award-winning contemporary artist Gaypalani Waṉambi – and embodies the experimental spirit of Painting Now.
For enquiries, please email dean@michaelreid.com.au
Explore more from Painting Now HERE.
What were some of your earlier artistic influences?
My whole family are artists. My mother’s father, and her aunties and grandfather, were all artists. My father and his father, and all my aunties on my dad’s side, were artists too. For myself, I took on my father’s side of the moiety, so that means that I am only to paint what my Marrakulu clan’s designs are. I represent my minytji (clan designs) differently, and show to other Yolŋu artists so that they can see what you can do with minytji designs – not just using paint and bark.
What initially drew you to painting/digital art and how has your approach developed over time?
My father, Mr Wukun Waṉambi, inspired me to make art. I saw how he used digital technology to animate his minytji of the wakun (mullet fish). Animation gave life to the minytji. The themes and style of my artwork are based on my clan’s minytji that my Marrakulu clan have always painted onto bark with ochres. I use these designs as a foundation for my ideas. If I feel tired of my minytji, I start fresh, painting with a digital brush on a tablet in Photoshop – the same design, but different style and colours.
What have been some of your favourite career experiences?
The artwork that I loved creating was Gurka’wuy, which represented the sacred rock in Gurka’wuy Bay, surrounded by the saltwater. It got an honourable mention at the NATSIAA 2024. It felt good creating that artwork.
Could you tell us about the artwork Marrakulu Monuk that will be exhibited at Painting Now 2025?
Marrakulu Monuk represents the saltwater at my homeland of Gurka’wuy. This saltwater belongs to my Marrakulu clan. Instead of painting Marrakulu Monuk onto barks with ochres, I wanted to make it digital while staying true to our traditions. Using Photoshop and a tablet, I painted this minytji using the ochre colours of my father’s bark paintings, and I made a digital brush to be like marwat, the handmade, thin-hair brush Yolŋu artists use. I then animated our minytji using many techniques to show the infinite swirling motion that occurs in our clan’s saltwater at Gurka’wuy.
Where did you begin with these paintings, and what were some of the ideas and experiences that shaped them?
My father inspired me to make paintings like this. He was the first to take minytji that are normally painted onto barks and burial poles and make them move. So he gave me the idea, by looking at his artwork. His vision motivated me to use digital technology with our Marrakulu minytji.
The name of Marrakulu Monuk is Gudultja. There is a story about Gudultja and Wulamba, who is the mari’mi gapu (grandmother saltwater). The story is that these two saltwaters sit together and is a metaphor for the grandchild and grandparent relationship – how they care for each other and are always there for one another.
I enjoy and feel comfortable using digital technology to create my artwork. In the future I will keep creating artwork this way and show the world what Yolŋu art looks like animated.
How do you hope viewers will engage with Marrakulu Monuk?
Some people will understand, or maybe not, how important it is to Yolŋu that every clan has their own sacred designs. We only paint our clan’s minytji. From our great-great grandparents to the younger generations, the knowledge is passed on to the young from the past. I would like to continue doing artwork like this in the future, to show and teach other Yolŋu artists – inspire them to learn and bring their clan’s minytji to life.
