Yunupingu family
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Mandawuy Yunupingu
Australian musician (1956–2013)
Mandawuy Yunupingu | |
|---|---|
Yunupingu performing with Yothu Yindi in 2000 | |
| Born | Tom Djambayang Bakamana Yunupingu (1956-09-17)17 September 1956 Yirrkala, Northern Territory, Australia |
| Died | 2 June 2013(2013-06-02) (aged 56) Yirrkala, Northern Territory, Australia |
| Other names | Gudjuk, Dr Yunupingu |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, school principal |
| Years active | 1985–2013 |
| Father | Mungurrawuy Yunupingu |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | Aboriginal rock |
| Instrument(s) | Guitar, vocals |
| Formerly of | Yothu Yindi |
Musical artist | |
Mandawuy Djarrtjuntjun YunupinguAC, formerly Tom Djambayang Bakamana Yunupingu, and also known as Dr Yunupingu (17 September 1956 – 2 June 2013), was a teacher and musician, and frontman of the Aboriginal rock group Yothu Yindi from 1986. He was an Aboriginal Australian man of the Yolŋu people, with a skin name of Gudjuk.
Yunupingu was a singer-songwriter and guitarist with the band. Yothu Yindi released six albums between 1989 and 2000, and their top 20 AR
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Mandawuy Yunupingu AC
Dr Mandawuy Yunupingu (1956–2013), singer songwriter, was the lead singer of Australia's pre-eminent Aboriginal band, Yothu Yindi. Born in Arnhem Land, Yunupingu trained as a teacher, completing his degree in 1987 and later becoming the first Indigenous Australian to be appointed a school principal. He formed Yothu Yindi in 1986. Combining traditional instruments, songs and sounds with western rock and pop, the band achieved international recognition with their second album Tribal Voice (1991) and specifically with the hit single 'Treaty'.
Co-written with Paul Kelly, 'Treaty' was written as a protest and to raise awareness of the government’s failure to honour then Prime Minister Bob Hawke’s promise to Indigenous Australians, at the Barunga Festival in 1988, of a treaty. It was performed at the launch of the United Nations International Year of Indigenous Peoples; 'Treaty' reached No. 11 on the Australian charts and was voted Song of the Year by the Australian Performing Rights Association.
Yunupingu retired from teaching in 1991 and toured with the band
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Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu (22 January 1971 – 25 July 2017), also referred to since his death as Dr G Yunupingu, was an Indigenous Australian musician. A multi-instrumentalist, he played drums, keyboards, guitar (a right-hand-strung guitar played left-handed) and didgeridoo, but it was the clarity of his singing voice that attracted rave reviews. He sang stories of his land both in Yolŋu languages such as Gälpu, Gumatj or Djambarrpuynu, and in English.
Although his solo career brought him wider acclaim, he was also formerly a member of Yothu Yindi, and later Saltwater Band. He was the most commercially successful Aboriginal Australian musician at the time of his death.
The first of four sons born to Ganyinurra (Daisy) and Nyambi (Terry) Yunupingu, he was born in Galiwin'ku, Elcho Island in 1971, situated off the coast of Arnhem Land in northern Australia, about 530 kilometres east of Darwin. He was from the Gumatj clan of the Yolngu and his mother was from the Galpu nation. He was born blind, never learned Braille and did not have a guide dog or use a white cane, and was
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