Djirrirra Wunungmurra (also known as Yukuwa) is a senior Yonglu artist whose authority to paint was granted by her father, the renowned artist Yanggarriny Wunungmurra (1932–2003). She assisted him on major works, including his 1997 Telstra Award–winning painting, before establishing an independent practice grounded in inherited clan knowledge and ceremonial responsibility.
She began producing incised bark paintings in the mid-2000s and developed a distinctive, highly refined incision practice from 2011. Although her work has encompassed diverse materials and themes, incision remains central to her visual language. These works demonstrate her exceptional precision and control, producing luminous, rhythmic surfaces through fine geometric patterning.
The three works depict Buyku, the fish-trap imagery of her clan and homeland at Gangan. Diamond forms represent surrounding waters, while grid structures describe the woven traps constructed during Mirrawarr (early Dry Season). The compositions also reference ancestral fishing ceremonies that affirm unity between Dhalwangu clan groups and allied families.
Made near the sacred waters of Gulutji, where the Yirritja ancestral being Barama established law and ceremony, the paintings situate Buyku within a wider cosmological and legal framework. Incised bark works carry layered knowledge of Country, kinship, and spiritual authority, acquired through lifelong learning.
Through disciplined repetition and compositional restraint, these works function as active records of law, place, and cultural continuity. Buyku, 2022 affirms Djirrirra’s position as a leading contemporary Yonglu artist, translating ancestral knowledge into a rigorous and enduring visual form.
