New exhibitions bring First Nations perspectives and collaborative artistry to the forefront

A vision to capture and share sacred values, knowledge and connections through modern technology will come to life in two new exhibitions at Charles Darwin University's (CDU) Art Gallery this week. 

MILKUM GA WALŊA: Pattern, camera, life and RAŊIPUY: The beach is breathing, coordinated by the arts collective Miyarrka Media, will be on display at the CDU Art Gallery from August 1, 2025. 

MILKUM GA WALŊA showcases the creative and academic work of Paul Gurrumuruwuy Wunungmurra (1955-2024), co-founder of Miyarrka Media, Senior Research Fellow and Co-Director of the Centre for Creative Futures (CCF) at CDU. 

Mr Wunungmurra’s image and full name are reproduced here at the request of his family in honour of his own wishes.

The exhibition displays film, images and commentary collected for Mr Wunungmurra’s doctoral submission for a PhD by Prior Publication with CDU. 

Miyarrka Media Co-Founder and CCF Co-Director Professor Jennifer Deger, a close friend and colleague who supported this academic endeavour, said the exhibition showcased how the this Yolŋu performer and researcher viewed traditional knowledge and ideas through an innovative lens.  

“What is uniquely powerful about Mr Wunungmurra's approach to media is the way that he used the camera to share feelings and connections infused with ancestral patterns and meanings,” Professor Deger said. 

“As he liked to say, 'Through the camera you can see creation happening'. As he has taught me to appreciate, our work together has been all about collaborating with creation.

“This speaks to his character. He found this novel work invigorating. He self-identified as an anthropologist and artist and he was a force of renewal.” 

Professor Deger said the exhibition exemplified how First Nations knowledge can claim its own place academic spaces, creating relationships between once very different and separate knowledge traditions. 

“He [Mr Wunungmurra] could stand there in authority, speaking in own languages, but also produce work which circulated within traditional academic contexts and international public spaces,” Professor Deger said. 

The second exhibition RAŊIPUY is an audiovisual invitation into life from the sands and salt waters of Arnhem Land. It is an ongoing project by Miyarrka Media that reaches out to anyone who has a beach that lives inside them

“Both exhibitions are a manifestation of his [Mr Wunungmurra] legacy,” Professor Deger said. 

“He spent his whole life as an intercultural broker. He travelled the world as a performer, and he was always interested in what it took to reach audiences without diminishing the differences of who we are.

“The collective we founded together, Miyarrka Media, has always been an intercultural and intergenerational commitment to Yolŋu social values, and his leadership and work resonate in both exhibitions.”

MILKUM GA WALŊA and RAŊIPUY will be on display at the CDU Art Gallery at Danala | Education and Community Precinct until October 11, 2025.