Mandawuy Yunupingu

Mandawuy Djarrtjuntjun Yunupingu , AC , was an Aboriginal Australian musician and educator. From 1986 he was the front man of the Aboriginal rock group Yothu Yindi as a singersongwriter and guitarist. In 1989 he became assistant principal of the Yirrkala Community School his former school and was principal for the following two years. He helped establish the Yolngu Action Group and introduced the Both Ways system, which recognised traditional Aboriginal teaching alongside Western methods. Yothu Yindi released six albums, Homeland Movement , Tribal Voice , Freedom , Birrkuta Wild Honey , One Blood , Garma . The groups top16020 ARIA Singles Chart appearances were Treaty and Djpana . He was appointed Australian of the Year for 1992 by the National Australia Day Council. In April 1998 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Queensland University of Technology. In December 2012 Yothu Yindi were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. In 2007 he was diagnosed with advanced renal failu

Yunupingu was born as Tom Djambayang Bakamana Yunupingu onSeptember 1956 in Yirrkala in Arnhem Land, an Aboriginal reserve in the northeastern part of the Northern Territory. He was a member of the Gumatj people, one of sixteen groups of the Yolngu people. His skin name was Gudjuk, but his name was changed to Mandawuy when a family member with the same name died, in line with Yolngu custom. He described his names as Mandawuy means from clay Djarrtjuntjun means roots of the paperbark tree that still burn and throw off heat after a fire has died down Yunupingu depicts a solid rock that, having travelled from freshwater, stands in salty waters, its base deep in the earth. I am Gudjuk the fire kite.

Source: Wikipedia