Professor Brian Gumbula-Garawirrtja

Professor Brian Djangirrawuy Gumbula-Garawirrtja is a Yolŋu leader, ceremonial director, traditional singer, artist, and knowledge holder from North-east Arnhem Land.

Brian holds the most senior rank of ceremonial leaders in the Gupapuyŋu alliance of Yirritja-moiety Yolŋu clans, and he is the most senior living ceremonial leader of the Birrkili clan within this alliance. Brian holds executive ceremonial responsibilities for the Gupapuyŋu clan alliance and their many Gupapuyŋu estates, including the homelands of Djiliwirri, Luŋgutja, and Borrum.

He has directed research funded by the Northern Territory Library and participated in projects funded by the Australian Research Council. His work is displayed in the Australian National Maritime Museum. He has sat on Boards for Yirralka Rangers and the Laynhapuy Homelands Aboriginal Corporation and has served the community as a Traditional Owner advising the Laynhapuy Indigenous Protected Area Management Plan (2017–2022).

Brian is one of the most senior and well-respected Yolŋu nations Elders and holds uniquely rare and exceptional knowledge of Yolŋu law and culture in North-east Arnhem Land, which is a key focus of the University’s Indigenous Strategy.

He holds long-term research collaborations with colleagues at the University of Melbourne in the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, Faculty of Science, and Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, as well as with academics at other universities around the world.

Brian’s appointment as a Fellow through this scheme will bring urgently needed understanding to links between Yolŋu cultural practice and University of Melbourne collections, including the Donald Thomson Collection. The complex layers of connections within Yolŋu law, culture, and ancestors are not well understood outside Yolŋu communities and are arguably understood less and less by younger generations of Yolŋu people today.

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