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The Mulka Project

@mulkaproject

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Mulka is an evolving archive of Yolŋu knowledge built on the law of elders past and present. Mulka is the eyes and the ears of the coming generations.

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It’s been a week since Rarrirarri opened at @illuminateadelaide
Thank you to @lee_cumberlidge and Rachael @razzo_25 for supporting the journey to bring Rarrirarri to this year’s festival, and to @agsa.adelaide for showcasing the work.
The Mulka team is grateful to the entire Illuminate team for making our trip to the cold lands welcoming, easy and memorable. And getting to have tea and sausage rolls at Government House was a delight.
We’ve been happy to see how many people have experienced Rarrirarri already. If you haven’t been yet, it’s still on, it’s free, and we’d love you to check it out. by @mulkaproject

Mulka team wandering through Night Visions @illuminateadelaide Amazing forest adventure by @mulkaproject

Rarrirarri is returning for its third showing, this time as part of @illuminateadelaide @agsa.adelaide Experience our immersive work, directed by Ishmael Marika and featuring the artwork of Mulkuṉ and Muluymuluy Wirrpanda. Rarrirarri brings Yolŋu songlines, art and storytelling to life through animation, sound and projection.
📍 Radford Auditorium, Art Gallery of South Australia, 490 North Terrace, Adelaide 📅 3–19 July 2026 🕛 Open daily, 12:00pm – 10:30pm 🎟 Free entry
Video footage @rising.melbourne, Shadow Spirit, 2023.
#Rarrirarri #TheMulkaProject #IlluminateAdelaide #AGSA by @mulkaproject

Very proud that QUT are celebrating this filmmaker. She spent her (covid) gap year honing her skills as one of the @mulkaproject team. Get @reshare_app • @qutcreativeindustries From Yirrkala to Sydney Film Festival via QUT!

While studying at QUT, Siena Mayutu Wurmarri Stubbs (@sienastubbs_) shared a powerful vision for her future, to return home and tell the stories of her people, and help others tell theirs.

Now, that vision is becoming a reality. Her short film Maŋutji (Catching Eyes), written and directed by Siena, is premiering at @Sydfilmfest this June. Set in her home community of Yirrkala in Arnhem Land, the film explores a tender story of two teenagers navigating their feelings while honouring cultural boundaries and kinship.

Already making its mark, Catching Eyes has been named a finalist for both the Dendy Award for Best Live Action Australian Short and the First Nations Award.

From a student with a dream to a rising First Nations filmmaker on the national stage, Siena is a powerful new voice in Australian cinema.

Good luck at the festival, Siena!

Image credit: Sydney Film Festival Instagram

#QUTFilmScreen #qutalumni by @mulkaproject

Mulka is happy to announce that Rarrirarri is going to be part of this years @illuminateadelaide. Originally exhibited at, and commissioned by, @rising.melbourne in 2023 the work will be on display at @agsa.adelaide and is graciously on loan from @artgalleryofnsw. Can’t wait Adelaide. Here we come. by @mulkaproject

So great to have the crew from @milingimbiartandculture visit this week! Sharing knowledge of bark harvesting and preparation, and diving into some digital archiving with the @mulkaproject team.

Pictured:
1. Dhamarrarr Munuŋgurr, Hetty Watts, David Yarrang Roy, Leon Milmurru, Weḏu Marika, Ŋalakan Waṉambi, Wurawuy Dhamarrandji with their freshly harvested Ṉuwayak
2. Gwen Warmbirrirr checking out the Mulka Archive by @mulkaproject

Students from @dhupuma_barker enjoying the upgrades to the Saltwater Auditorium here at Buku! Did you know there are hundreds of films available to watch at the art centre? The Mulka Archive is home to an incredibly broad collection of materials - from archival footage to feature films and even local footy finals.

Swipe for a snippet of Djeṯ’puy Dhawu, a claymation retelling of the Maḏarrpa clan sea-eagle story made by @mulkaproject and students from Yirrkala Bilingual School.

The upgrades to the Saltwater Auditorium were made possible by @ntgovernment through the Community Benefit Fund. by @mulkaproject

2025 has been a big year at The Mulka Project. From our daily work documenting, archiving, and sharing Yolŋu cultural knowledge to creating our largest immersive installation for @artgalleryofnsw, none of it would be possible without our partners.

Thank you for helping keep Yolŋu knowledge, language and creativity strong. ILA @ausgovarts, @cottononfoundation, @ianpotterfdn, @aboriginalinvestmentNT, @creative.australia, @unimelb, @firstlanguagesaustralia, @mag_nt, and @dlancontemporary.

First Nations Art Award | Photo by Joseph Mayers by @mulkaproject

Happy Holidays! The Buku team will be taking a well-earnt break from 23rd December until 5th January 2025. See you in the new year bukmak! ✌🏾❤️ by @mulkaproject

NOW OPEN: Painting Now 2025 | Until 28 December | Michael Reid Sydney

This week at Michael Reid Sydney, we are thrilled to present the 2025 edition of Painting Now – an expansive group survey assembling significant new bodies of work by five extraordinary artists: JO CHEW, HEATH NOCK, BRENTON DRECHSLER, COLUMBIERE TIPUNGWUTI and DHUKUMUL WAṈAMBI.

Curated by Dean Phillips-Andersen, our annual program spotlights an exciting school of established talents at a moment of creative breakthrough, celebrating the here-and-now of contemporary painting with works that expand the medium’s possibilities and push it into optically charged, conceptually daring and technically dazzling terrain.

Now unfolding across the entire ground-floor gallery at our flagship Eora/Sydney space as the capstone to our 2025 exhibitions program, Painting Now will be celebrated with opening drinks this Saturday, 6 December, and all works are available to explore and acquire online or by contacting curator Dean Phillips-Andersen.

“The calibre of the artists, the ambition of the work, the conversations along the way, and seeing everything come together in the gallery made curating Painting Now 2025 one of my most fulfilling projects to date,” says Phillips-Andersen, who sat down with each of the artists for a series of online profiles – now live on our website.

To enquire about available work or RSVP to this Saturday’s celebration, please email dean@michaelreid.com.au

@brenton_drechsler @jilamaraartsandcrafts @jochew_ @bukuartnow @mulkaproject @heathnock @deanandersen.art

#brentondrechsler #columbieretipungwuti #jochew #dhukumulwanambi #heathnock #paintingnow #paintingnow2025 #michaelreidsydney by @mulkaproject

YOU’RE INVITED: Painting Now | Opening Drinks this Saturday, 6 December, 2–4pm | Michael Reid Sydney

Our 2025 program at Michael Reid Sydney culminates this week with the latest edition of Painting Now – set to be welcomed with opening drinks this Saturday, 6 December, where many of the artists will be in attendance.

rinks will be served from 2pm and everyone is welcome to join us, experience this dynamic exhibition and hear from the five incredible talents who have joined forces for this year’s show: Columbiere Tipungwuti, Jo Chew, Heath Nock, Dhukumul Waṉambi and Brenton Drechsler.

Curated by Dean Phillips-Andersen, our annual group survey spotlights an exciting school of established contemporary painters from across Australia whose practices expand the creative possibilities of art’s most storied medium.

Each artist selected for the Painting Now Class of 2025 treats painting as an expanded creative field. With their distinct approaches, perspectives and preoccupations, they push the medium into optically charged, technically dazzling and conceptually daring terrain.

All works from Painting Now 2025 can be previewed and acquired online and by request ahead of this Saturday’s public celebration. For all enquiries and to RSVP to the opening drinks, please email dean@michaelreid.com.au

OPENING DRINKS
Painting Now 2025
Saturday, 6 December, 2–4pm
Michael Reid Sydney
109 Shepherd Street
Chippendale NSW 2008

@brenton_drechsler @jilamaraartsandcrafts @jochew_ @bukuartnow @heathnock @mulkaproject

#brentondrechsler #columbieretipungwuti #jochew #dhukumulwanambi #heathnock #paintingnow #paintingnow2025 #michaelreidsydney by @mulkaproject

THIS WEEK: DHUKUMUL WAṈAMBI | Painting Now | 4–28 December | Michael Reid Sydney

“‘Marrakulu Monuk’ represents the saltwater at my homeland of Gurka’wuy. This saltwater belongs to my Marrakulu clan,” says Yolŋu artist DHUKUMUL WAṈAMBI of the digital painting she will present this week at Michael Reid Sydney as part of our annual survey, Painting Now.

“Instead of painting ‘Marrakulu Monuk’ onto barks with ochres, I wanted to make it digital while staying true to our traditions. Using the ochre colours of my father’s bark paintings, I made a digital brush to be like marwat, the handmade, thin-hair brush Yolŋu artists use. I then animated our minytji using many techniques to show the infinite swirling motion that occurs in our clan’s saltwater at Gurka’wuy.”

By transposing cultural knowledge and a time-honoured visual language into the digital realm, Waṉambi continues the legacy of artistic innovation forged by her father, the late artist and cultural leader Mr Waṉambi – a mantle shared by her sister, acclaimed contemporary artist and 2025 Telstra Art Award-winner Gaypalani Waṉambi.

“My father inspired me to make paintings like this,” says Dhukumul, who works as a filmmaker and digital artist with The Mulka Project. “He was the first to take miny’tji that are normally painted onto bark and burial poles, and make them move.”

Reimagining painting as an expanded field and harnessing new technologies to continue an intergenerational transference of traditional stories, Waṉambi embodies the experimental spirit of a new generation of Yolŋu artists working at Yirrkala in north-east Arnhem Land, and the celebration of painting’s broadened possibilities that sits at the heart of Painting Now.

“I would like to continue doing artwork like this in the future, to show and teach other Yolŋu artists; inspire them to learn and bring their clan’s minytji to life.”

To receive a preview catalogue and discuss works from Painting Now, please email dean@michaelreid.com.au

@bukuartnow @mulkaproject

#dhukumulwanambi #mulkaproject #digitalpainting #paintingnow #yirrkala #paintingnow2025 #michaelreidsydney by @mulkaproject