Name: Lucy Yarawanga


Language: Gurrgoni


Community: Maningrida


Biography:

Bulanjdjan Lucy Yarawanga is an experienced Gurr-goni multidisciplinary artist. She works extensively through Bábbarra Women’s Centre, employing both lino and screen printing techniques, with her textile designs often referencing her ancestral stories, including various depictions of Bawáliba (Djinkarr spirit woman). Lucy’s painting style, like her personality, is bold and to the point. As well as her native Gurr-goni language – one of the least commonly spoken languages in Arnhem Land, Lucy also speaks another eight Maningrida languages. 

 

 "I’m an artist. I work doing bark painting and I also do designs at the Women’s Centre (Babbarra). I didn’t get these things from nowhere. I had them in my mind from when I was 8 or 9 years old. My mother was telling me that story. She passed away in 2019. I was thinking to myself, when I was working by myself, I was thinking.. to make that design, Bawáliba. And my fabric design, it goes everywhere - and my art on bark and paper.
 
I’m don’t think of myself as a perfect woman or artist, no! I’m just painting. Sometimes, I save money for my grandkids." Lucy Yarawanga 2024


© the artist / art centre