The ‘mintji’ or traditional cross-hatching the Yolngu paint with ochres on barks, hollow logs and other artefacts is mesmerisingly beautiful. It also radiates power. It encodes sacred knowledge about the land and sea and documents the Yolngu’s connection to country over 60,000 years. Within three decades of the arrival of white colonists in 1935, the Yolngu had used their art for political gains. They revisited the tactic in the courts, winning crucial land and maritime rights.
In this episode, anthropologist Howard Morphy, who has lived among the Yolngu for over 40 years, and Will Stubbs, veteran manager of the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre, trace the ways art, law and politics are inextricably linked.
Listen to Episode 3
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