Yirrkala Drawings

About this book

This collection of exuberant drawings offers insight into the Aboriginal culture of the Yolgnu people from Yirrkala in northern Australia. In 1947 a group of Aboriginal leaders and artists in Yirrkala collaborated with anthropologists Ronald and Catherine Berndt to document the intricacies of their culture and history. The result was this group of crayon drawings on butcher paper. Dynamic vivid and unlike any other indigenous Australian art these works are treasures that offer important keys to understanding the world of the Yolgnufrom ancestral times to first contact with anthropologists and missionaries in the 20th century.