Title

Bulunbulun, Johnny.

Author

Australian Art Print Network.

Source

[Not applicable]

Publication date

2001

Type

Biography

Language

English

Country of context

Australia

Full text

Johnny Bulunbulun

Johnny Bulunbulun was born just after the Second World War near the Arafura Swamp of Central Arnhem Land. When he was older, his family moved to the nearby Christian mission in Milingimbi so that he could attend school. He left school early to work in a variety of labouring jobs on the mission, at the ‘government’ settlement at Maningrida, and with the Armed Services in Darwin. Bulunbulun is a senior member of the Ganalbingu group and is one of the most important singers and ceremonial men in north-central Arnhem Land.

Although from the Arafura Swamp he moved west to Gamedi outstation on the Blyth River when he married Nelly [deceased] the sister of painter Jack Wununwun [deceased]. A steady though not prolific painter he began to make his mark in the late 1970s when the Aboriginal art market expanded and the Art & Craft Centre artists cooperative at Maningrida began to be noticed. His career took an interesting turn in 1977 after he was commissioned to complete an individual mural on the wall and ceiling of an underground Australian Defence Department instillation in Canberra. In 1981 his importance was recognised by a one artist show at the Hogarth Gallery in Sydney. In 1986 he attended the South Pacific Arts Festival in Tahiti.

His major composition is often the totem of Gumang, the magpie goose and Guwaynang, the long necked turtle focused around a central sacred waterhole. The Guwaynang is an important creature in Ganalbingu cosmology and is Bulunbulun’s personal totem. According to Bulunbulun, the magpie goose “is the most important one because it was him that made my country and my people.”

Biography courtesy of The Australian Art Print Network, 2001.

© Australianprints

Last Updated

23 Sep 2020