Dhambit Mununggurr
Dhambit Mununggurr (born 1968) is an Yolngu artist known for unique ultramarine blue bark paintings inspired by natural landscapes and Yolngu stories and legends. Her father Mutitjpuy Mununggurr and mother Gulumbu Yunupingu, were both celebrated aboriginal artists, and each won first prizes at the Telstra National Aboriginal & Torress Strait Islander Awards (NATSIAA). After a vehicular accident in 2005, Mununggurr was severely injured but would return to painting in 2010. Since then, she has had several solo exhibitions ("Mirdawarr Dhulan" & "Gaybada - My Father was an Artist") and participated in one group exhibition ("Provenance Does Matter - Living with Contemporary Art ). Biography. Dhambit Mununggurr was born in 1968 to Mutitjpuy Mununggurr (1932-1993) and Gulumbu Yunupingu (1945–2012). Her father was the first artist to win the award with a bark painting (Djang’kawu") in 1990, and her mother won the award in 2004 for her work "Garak, the Universe." Her father was one of the members of the Dhuwa moiety who contributed to the Yirrkala Church Panels (which would lead to the creation of the Yirrkala Bark Petitions of 1963), and served as a great inspiration for Mununggurr. In 2004, Mununggurr became the first Yolngu woman to graduate as a tour guide  in Yirrkala. In 2005, Mununggurr was hit by a truck, leaving her wheel-chair bound and unable to use her right hand to paint. Before the accident, she had begun painting in 2004, and was credited in the film "Yolngu Boy." Her recovery consisted of a Western treatment an traditional healing practices, and she entered an intensive rehabilitation program in 2011 at Epworth Rehabilitation in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. When returning to painting in 2010, she trained herself to paint with her non-dominant left hand with her condition slowly improving. Her favoring of blue acrylics was an effect of the  accident, with NATSIAA curators agreeing she could no longer grind traditional ochres used for bark painting with her limited dexterity in her right hand. Her work was acquired by Artbank in 2018 in a collection which detailes Mununggurr's life and her familial ties. At the top, her maternal grandfather Mungurrawuy Yunupingu is pictured, and further down her uncles Galarrwuy and Mandawuy are shown. Her mother, Gulumbu Yunupingu, is represented through the stars which show what she had painted on the ceiling of the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris, France. Lastly, Dhambit herself is represented as a monolithic rock  on Elcho Island.