Ochre to acrylic: Galarrwuy Yunupingu’s legacy lives on

In Arnhem Land, tribesmen have gathered to honour Galarrwuy Yunupingu with ancient ceremonies.

A mobile phone erupts among the clapsticks but no one seems moved to answer it, as elders coax aspiring leaders to get their ­routines just right and youngsters look on with respectful eyes.

Barbecues may have replaced bonfires and ochres have been substituted with acrylic paint, but the brushstrokes on skin still create­ sacred patterns reflecting Gan Gan billabong, the place from which all Dhalwangu culture is believed to emanate.

Between the loping stringy­barks and azure inlets of Arnhem Land, the Yolngu world is pausing to take a breath. In Gunyangara, site of a handful of new Aboriginal microbusinesses, tribesmen have gathered to honour Gumatj clan leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu with ceremonies handed down from before Australia was a concept. The Ngarra ceremony is particular to male achievement: an evolving story told over several days, this one is expected to conclude tomorrow. The Dhalwangu clan is performing key rites under a Mari Gutharra or grandfather relationship with the Gumatj that is central to Yolngu law.

“The ceremony is to celebrate his life,” says Bobby Wunungmurra, a Dhalwangu leader.

“When a person who has done a lot for people chooses a time to move forward, we have this ­ceremony, this final and special ceremony for that person.”

Balupalu Yunupingu, Galarrwuy’s brother and a leader from the Gumatj side, says the cere­mony happens when such a person gets older and “can’t do certain things, like men’s business”. “This is like his retirement from certain obligations,” he says. “It’s time for him to pass those things on to the next people.”

As sunset creeps up the walls of Gumatj Corporation’s headquarters, women gather around a tree that is no longer a tree but Garrarrak, a symbol of enduring knowledge. In a three-note screech foreign to the modern vernacular, they call out to the men, who soon arrive bearing spears. Galarrwuy comes first, driven in a silver Lexus with flames down the sides. Dressed in a ceremonial costume, he also wears his trademark frown and gold-rimmed aviator sunglasses.

Galarrwuy — land rights warrior, national icon, staunch trad­itionalist and at times conduit for controversy — has lived in two worlds for a generation. After heading up the Northern Land Council, he retired to Gunyan­gara, his home community, which was then in dire need of support.

He used royalties from Gumatj land to establish a suite of quasi-­commercial ventures to accustom Yolngu to work, a mine training centre the latest to spring out of the ground. Gumatj Corp chief executive officer Klaus Helms says one of the greatest challenges has been to balance cultural and commercial responsibilities.

“It can be a strain, but we are finding ways around it,” Helms says. “The whole idea is to work it so you can continue when cultural obligations arise without losing consistency with what you’re doing commercially, because if you lose that then your businesses may collapse.”

Yolngu men, some of whom began the day decked out in high-vis clothing, knock off early and paint up to join the dancing. Galarrwuy looks on from a lawn chair. A man climbs Garrarrak surrounded by spear throwers, then the dancers perform a routine mimicking honey bees drinking from Gan Gan billabong. Finally, creation myths are retold over a loud hailer.

Afterwards, the ceremonial dinner is cooked, served and cleared away by Yolngu women. There is perhaps one white face among the 100-strong crowd. “This is delivered by Yolngu, for Yolngu, to Yolngu, and I’m really happy about that,” Helms says.

Galarrwuy seems conscious he is one of those in whom culture resides. Without such leaders, such ceremonies, there would be nothing to give meaning to the phrase, “oldest living culture, continuous for 50,000 years”. Only anthropologists store their culture in books. “The rules of ceremony are very strict,” he says. “The most important thing for me is my ceremonial teachings, which show me how to live and to lead the proper way. There’s no other way.

“There are other ideas and laws and teachings, and all that might interrupt me, but I must tell the difference between them and my ceremonial laws, which are the only ones to live by.”

He watches intently the way each dot and brushstroke, footprint in dancing, shift of body weight is placed, ordering everything in his mind. Late last night, as the dancers painted up once more, the Madarrpa clan arrived. Tomorrow a sacred object will become part of the ritual. On the last night, Galarrwuy will be painted. Then his ceremony will be done.