Plain sailing on majestic scale as Yolngu weaver wins Indigenous art prize

The story of the Makassan sail begins with a fight, goes on with marriage, and unrolls like the ball of kurrajong string that won Margaret Rarru Garrawurra a prestigious $100,000 prize.

Margaret Rarru Garrawurra on Milingimbi Island. The 2022 Telstra Natsiaa Art Award prizewinner, is a senior Yolngu artist from Langarra, Arnhem Land. Picture: Charlie Bliss

The story of the Makassan sail begins with a fight, goes on with marriage and unrolls like the ball of kurrajong string that made it through the generations and into the gallery that won Margaret Rarru Garrawurra a prestigious $100,000 prize.

Back before anyone can precisely remember, when one of Ms Garrawurra’s great (possibly great-great) grandfathers was alive, a man from the remote Arnhem Land island of Milingimbi had a fight with one of the Makassan sailors who roamed Northern Australia’s coastline. For whatever reason, it was deemed the man should go to Makassa as a punishment, but Ms Garrawurra’s relative went instead.

He travelled to the archipelago now known as Indonesia, staying long enough to take a wife and learn much about the seafaring nation. When he returned to Milingimbi, the knowledge he brought about how to make Dhomala (pandanus sails) was passed on to Ms Garrawurra’s father. As a girl, she watched him make them by laying out kurrajong strings in sail shapes and gently weaving the panels between.

Her own career as a weaver blossomed. She is especially well known for making beautiful black dillybags. Then, one day, she found herself with a large ball of Kurrajong string and wondered what to make. “I got the idea from watching my father,” she says.

“He was showing me from his teaching … I want other Yolngu to see (this Dhomala), so maybe they think they can make one, too.”

Ms Garrawurra’s statuesque creation is the winner of this year’s Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards overall prize. Her third Dhomala, it is striped and, at almost 3m, the largest she has made.

The awards’ return in full regalia in 2022 after two years of virtual ceremonies held during the pandemic. The 63 finalists are displayed in the main gallery of the Museum and Art Gallery of the NT in Darwin.

The judging panel described Ms Garrawurra’s work as “both majestic in scale and exacting in technical virtuosity”. “Hers is a powerful work which reminds us that Yolngu long (have) been active and intrepid explorers, participating in international trade since well before the arrival of the Europeans,” the judges said.

Betty Muffler won the General Painting Award and the late Ms D Yunupingu the Bark Painting Award. Gary Lee won the Works on Paper, Bonnie Burangarra and Freda Ali Wayartja took home the Wandjuk Marika 3D Memorial Award, Jimmy John Thiday won the Multimedia Award and the emerging artist award went to Kununurra-based painter Louise Malarvie.