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Maymurru, Narritjin
(b ?1922; d Yirrkala, 1982). Australian Aboriginal painter and sculptor. He was a member of the Manggalili clan of the Yolngu-speaking peoples. He grew up in the Caledon Bay region of north-east Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, before European colonization. In the 1930s he moved to the newly established mission of Yirrkala and in 1938 helped to establish the Aboriginal settlement of Umbakumba on Groote Eylandt. After World War II he began to produce paintings for sale through the Yirrkala Mission store. He lived in Darwin for some time and won prizes in the Aboriginal art category at the Darwin Eisteddfod. In 1962 he was one of the main painters of the Yirritja moiety panel for Yirrkala Church. In 1963 he travelled with an Aboriginal dance group to perform in the southern states of Australia; on this trip he became determined that Aboriginal art should gain the same recognition in Australia as European art. By the 1970s his paintings (e.g. Gunyan Crab in Djarrakpi Landscape, 1975; Melbourne, N.G. Victoria) were highly sought after by collectors (see ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIA, fig. 10 for an example of his work), and in 1978, with his son Banapana Maymurru (1944–86), he was jointly awarded a visiting artistic fellowship at the Australian National University, Canberra. They were the first Aboriginal artists to be awarded such a position. Like Mawalan Marika, Narritjin played a major role in encouraging women to produce sacred paintings: several of his daughters, including Naminapu Maymurru (b 1952), Bumiti Maymurru (b 1948) and Nyapililngu Maymurru (b 1937) became well-known painters. With his brother Nanyin Maymurru (?1918–69) and under the tutelage of Birkidji (1898–1983), he developed a characteristic style of painting using a distinctive technique of dashed infill. With Mawalan Marika and Munggurrawuy Yunapingu he developed a method of representing myths in episodic form in large complex paintings, which, although based on traditional art, involved a considerable elaboration of the figurative component (e.g. Bamapama, see Morphy, fig. 9.5).
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