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Mandawuy Yunupingu, Founder, Yothu Yindi
Mandawuy Yunupingu was born in 1956 near the remote north-east Arnhem Land community of Yirrkala, 600 kilometres east of Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory. At this time Yirrkala was controlled by the Methodist Missionary Society.
His surname, Yunupingu, means "rock that will stand against anything". Originally known as Bakamana, he took the name Mandawuy (meaning "clay") in 1989 following the death of a man who shared his former name. (Under Yolngu law, the name of a dead person cannot be uttered until that person's spirit has passed on to its rightful place).
Mandawuy Yunupingu's skin name is Gudjuk meaning hawk. His formal Yolngu name and spiritual identity is Maralitja. He is a member of the Gumatj clan of the Yirritja moiety. His ancestral totem is the baru meaning saltwater crocodile.
Mandawuy Yunupingu speaks many of the tribal dialects encompassed in Yolngu matha as well as English.
In 1977 Mandawuy earned a restricted teaching certificate and began teaching at the Yirrkala Community School. In 1985, while teaching at Galiwin'ku on neighbouring Elcho Island, Mandawuy wrote his first song, Djapana (Sunset Dreaming). Later in the year he formed the band Yothu Yindi with his nephew Witiyana Marika.
In 1987, Mandawuy Yunupingu became the first Aboriginal person from Arnhem Land to gain a university degree, taking a Bachelor of Arts (Education) from Deakin University.
In 1989 Mandaway Yunupingu became assistant principal of the Yirrkala Community School and set about introducing a both-ways curriculum that offered students the best aspects of both Yolngu (Aboriginal) and Balanda (European) education processes.
In 1990, Mandawuy Yunupingu took over as principal of the Yirrkala Community School, a position he held until late 1991 when he took leave to concentrate on his career with Yothu Yindi.
As the band's principal songwriter he was responsible for much of the material on Yothu Yindi's gold album Homeland Movement (1989) the multi-platinum album Tribal Voice (1991), Freedom (1993), Birrkuta – Wild Honey (1996), One Blood (1999) and Garma (2000).
With Yothu Yindi, Mandawuy Yundupingu has toured extensively, performing throughout Australia, north and south America and eastern and western Europe as well as parts of Africa, Asia and the Pacific. In December 1992, the band was invited to headline at the New York launch of the United Nations International Year of Indigenous Peoples.
On January 26, 1993, Mandawuy Yunupingu was named Australian of the Year for 1992. It's an award with which his brother Galarrwuy was honoured in 1978.
Mandawuy Yunupingu comes from a politically active family. His father was a signatory to the bark petition presented to the federal parliament in 1963. It was that petition that led to the historic Gove Land Rights case and ultimately to the implementation of the Land Rights Act (NT) 1976. Mandawuy's older brother, Galarrwuy Yunupingu AM, is now serving his fifth term as chairman of the influential Northern Land Council.
In 1995-96 Mandawuy Yunupingu was chair of the Reference Group Overseeing the National Review of Education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
In April 1998 Mandawuy Yunupingu was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of the University (DUniv) by the Queensland University of Technology "in recognition of his significant contribution to the education of Aboriginal children, and to greater understanding between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians."
He is a member of the National Treaty Steering Group and the National Environmental Education Council.
Mandawuy Yunupingu is married to Yalmay, a teacher from the Rirratjingu clan, and they have six daughters.
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