Over the last 6 years ReDot Fine Art Gallery has pursued a focused and determined goal of bringing the most important and modern Australian Indigenous art to the shores of Singapore, educating the public of this vibrant and fast evolving art movement. To begin with our focus has been on canvases from the Central and Western Desert co-operative art centres.

But Indigenous Australia is a diverse tapestry of many ’nations’, environments, languages and art styles which is also reflected in the Australian contemporary fine art world. All major Institutional, and most serious private collections, include work in natural media from the Top End in addition to the more common acrylic on canvas from the desert. Barks, sculpture and larrakitj (memorial poles) from Arnhem land communities regularly attract critical and commercial acclaim as exciting contemporary art.

With this in mind, in late July and August we are pleased to announce the 1st ever exhibition of poles and barks from the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre. Yirrkala, as it is better known, is acknowledged as one of the top three community-owned art centres in Australia and has won twelve prizes in the last fifteen Telstra Art Awards. The recent Sydney Biennale featured the 110 memorial poles owned by the Kerry Stokes Collection. It is a small Aboriginal community on the north-eastern tip of the top end of the Northern Territory, approximately 700km east of Darwin. Buku-Larrnggay means the feeling on your face as it is struck by the first rays of the sun - Miwatj or the Sunrise country.

Fittingly, ‘Returning to Djakapurra’ – A Collection of Yirrkala Poles and Barks 2010, will mark the rising of this established and award winning art centre by showcasing 19 magnificent poles from this coastal refuge and 27 exquisitely handcrafted ochre barks from established and emerging Yolngu people. Intricate works in classical geometric designs, mesmerizing the viewer and attracting them into the history and life of these proud and determined people.

There has been an indigenous community at Yirrkala throughout recorded history, but the community increased enormously in size when the Yirrkala mission was founded in 1935. The art centre was established formally in 1975, though one can track back to the 1960s Narritjin Maymuru setting up his own beachfront gallery from which he sold art that now graces many major museums and private collections. His vision of a Yolngu-owned business to sell Yolngu art that started with a shelter on a beach has now grown into a thriving business that will this year see Yirrkala showcase in Singapore and also exhibit at the Shanghai EXPO, an impressive contrast to the humble beginnings of the beachfront gallery! ’Djakapurra’ according to the Yolngu Dictionary was the Yolngu interpretation of the name given to Singapore by Macassan traders who had visited the North Australian coast for hundreds of years prior to European settlement. It is well known that Yolngu accompanied Macassans to their Sulawesi home base and it appears that they had in fact visited Singapore before. So in 2010 that link will be re-opened by this show and we are excited to be making the re-connection between this remote part of Australia and the Lion City.

The show will be attended by Wukun WANAMBI and Will Stubbs, as they add a special touch to the event and share their stories of living in remote Aboriginal communities and maintaining and protecting a precious culture to the Singapore public. The show also features works by Gulumbu YUNUPINGU, Wolpa WANAMBI, Djirrirra WUNUNMURRA, Garawan WANAMBI, Barrupu YUNUPINGU, Barayuwa MUNUNGGURR and Dhurrumuwuy MARIKA.