(b c. 1907; d Yirrkala, 1978). Australian Aboriginal painter and sculptor. He was the leader of the Gumatj clan of north-east Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, during a critical period of the history of the Yolngu-speaking peoples, and one of the leaders of the Yolngu people in their fight for land rights when tenure of their land was threatened by mining interests in the 1960s and 1970s. Like Mawalan Marika, he was one of the first artists to produce bark paintings for sale to the missionary Wilbur Chaseling in 1935, and he later contributed to Stuart Scougall’s collection for the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. With Marika and Narritjin Maymurru he helped to develop the episodic-narrative style of paintings characteristic of Yolngu art from the 1960s to the 1980s (e.g. Space Tracking Station, 1967; Adelaide, A. G. S. Australia). He was a prolific painter until the end of his life, and established a productive relationship with the Melbourne art dealer Jim Davidson, who sold many of his paintings. Yunapingu was also a significant wood-carver, in particular of Wuraymu mortuary figures. Collections of these are in the National Museum of Australia, Canberra, and the Anthropology Research Museum at the University of Western Australia, Perth. His son Galarrwuy Yunapingu became a leading Aboriginal politician.