Professor Wanta Pawu

wantastevenjampijinpa.pawu@unimelb.edu.au
Research profile

Professor Wantarri 'Wanta' Pawu is fully initiated into Warlpiri law and was admitted to the highest order of traditional leadership by the Warlpiri elders in 2008.

In the 1980s, he graduated from the Warlpiri sky ceremonies, giving Wanta the responsibility to look after his father’s and his mother’s father’s songlines. In addition to being the custodian of these ceremonies and Country, Wanta is the guardian of his father’s mother’s and mother’s mother’s songlines.

Wanta’s homeland is Pawu (Mt Barkley) and he also has the responsibility to look after the remote Dreaming plain known as Kulpulurnu (Rain Dreaming). Wanta is the senior male leader of his clan and represents them within the broader Kurdiji corporation.

He is a highly sought-after public speaker and cultural advisor of international repute, who has directed numerous films including Milpirri: Winds of Change (2014), which streams on SBS OnDemand.

He is the only Warlpiri investigator to have led an ARC project. Wanta Patrick is one of the most senior and well-respected Warlpiri Elders and holds uniquely rare and exceptional knowledge of Warlpiri law and culture in the Tanami Desert, which is an emerging area of interest for the Indigenous Knowledge Institute and other Indigenous programs within the University.

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