Taripang / Dharripa / Trepang: REMIX
Thomas Nanjiwarra Amagula
Raylene Bonson
Artists from Milingimbi Art & Culture + Jonathan Daw Animation
Matthew Djipurrtjun
Margaret Rarru + Marcus Lacey
George Pascoe Gaymarani
Nicholas Gouldhurst
Patrick Freddy Puruntatameri
Colin Heenan-Puruntatameri
Gary Lee
Michelle Woody + Colin Heenan-Puruntatameri
Dhuwarrwarr Marika
Ipeh Nur
Bulthirrirri Wunungmurra
Opening Saturday 7 June, 2 pm
With opening talk by Petrit Abazi (Director, NCCA)
Book Launch + Finissage Saturday 12 July, 2 pm
In the company of Dr Nur Shkembi (Artistic Director, Islamic Arts Museum Project, Sydney) and curator Petrit Abazi (further guests TBA)
Exhibition runs 7 June to 12 July 2025
The Cross Art Projects
In proud collaboration with the Northern Centre for Contemporary Art (NCCA), Darwin
Curated by Petrit Abazi
With thanks to the Batchelor Institute Art Collection
Taripang / Dharripa / Trepang: REMIX contributes to a broader truth-telling of Australia’s rich pre-colonial history and its northern trade routes, used to harvest the lucrative commodity of Holothuroidea—a class of animals widely known in Australia’s north and the Indonesian archipelago as dharripa, trepang or taripang—sea cucumbers which are found in abundance in the shallow sea-beds of the region.
Commencing around 1700, the trepang trade route brought together the Makassans—a broad and multi-cultural group of Indonesian seafarers—and Australian First Nations peoples from the north. One ocean current took fleets to Arnhem Land and the Gulf of Carpentaria and another brought others to Australia’s western shores and the Kimberley region (known as Kayu Jawa). In these lands and waters occupied by Aboriginal nations, the two groups entered into a series of reciprocal negotiations for the right to collect and process trepang, a relationship that spanned several centuries.
Taripang/Dharripa/Trepang premiered at Northern Centre for Contemporary Art (NCCA) in 2024. This remixed version brings the spirit of this remarkable exhibition to Sydney to share the history of the trepang fishers and ensure its contemporary resonance. The Darwin re-telling cast a widened the net beyond Arnhem Land to include Tiwi Islands and Anindilyakwa islands in the Gulf of Carpentaria and west to Larrakia Country.
Artist Abdi Karia, writing for the Yolngu/Macassan Project embedded in the 2022 Asia Pacifc Triennale noted that in the world history of seafaring, some voyages from the Northern to the Southern Hemisphere stopped at the equator—with the journeys transforming into colonialism. The same happened with trips from the Western world to the Eastern. Other trips, from equatorial regions to the south, including to Australia, are much less talked about. The sailors called Macassar people are usually from Bugis, Makassar, Malay, or even Jawa ethnicities. Some were Timorese. They were sojourners who returned sometimes accompanied by Aboriginal people and the relationship was not colonial.
Artists featured include Margaret Rarru and Bulthirrirri Wunungmurra and Indonesian artist Ipeh Nur alongside contemporary works from Babbarra, Milingimbi and Jilamara Art Centres and historic works from Batchelor College Collection. The remix omits some works (such as the live trepang) and Abdi Karya’s work (on loan to The Islamic Museum of Australia) but includes new works. We acknowledge with sadness the eminent artists who have passed in the last year.
These important stories are familiar as there have been several retellings in different exhibitions and venues over the past decade often initiated by art centres in Milingimbi, Maningrida and Yirkalla. The Cross Art Projects has presented two linked retellings, the first being By the Wind, Stars and Ocean Currents which included Bulthirrirri Wunungmurra and the second Dhomala Dhäwu: Makassan Sail Stories with the artists Ipeh Nur and Margaret Rarru.
Ipeh Nur’s work, a long printed scroll, shows the elaborate rituals of Makassan and Bugis boatbuilders (once two rival but interlocked kingdoms Gowa and Bugis) as a way to unlock the complexity of historical narration. The lipalipa, a dugout canoe, was carried on prahu, a much larger vessel for local harvesting. Ipeh Nur says of the prahu, “Apart from looking at the sacredness, it is important to see the technology in this keel connection—they don’t use glue as an adhesive. Only eucalyptus bark is used to prevent leakage and wooden pegs to connect the boards.” The lipalipa can be sailed with either end forward, typically having a large woven triangular sail as seen in a delightful animated video made by children at Milingimbi ‘Djambanpuy Dhawu, The Tamarind Tale’.
A fleet comprising some 50 or more prahu annually left the port of Makassar in South Sulawesi, sailing with the seasonal north-westerly winds and returned when the wind changed to the south. The sojourners, therefore, lived on shore for 5 to 6 months each year in semi-permanent processing camps on sheltered coves of the liminal shores. Today these seasonal settlements can be identified by the tamarind trees they planted and numerous artefacts and kilns. Each year these fleets transported up to 400 tonnes of dried trepang to China via the port of Makassar. In exchange for trepang, tortoise shell and pearls, the Makassans imported metal, fabrics, tobacco, wine and rice. This long-sustained practice, fostered economic, material, linguistic and cultural exchange.
Artist Mathew ‘Teapot’ Djipurrtjun explains “They use that wind to bring them over here. So they come on that first wind. That wind blow this side”. They came looking for trepang (sea cucumbers). The first place they travelled in North East Arnhem Land is Martjanba (Wessel Island) and traded what they brought with them.”
Djipurrtjun states these trade items were: “telescopes, tobacco, and pipes for ngarali (smoking), yiki (knives), berratha (rice), dopulu (playing cards), and mänha (wine) in return for the trepang. They gave coloured flags to the Yirritja clans including yellow, red, black, green, white and blue, which are used today by Yolngu to identify and associate Yirritja clan groups. They also taught Yolngu how to make the lipalipa (dugout timber canoe). Both Yirritja and Dhuwa now have manikay (ceremonial song and dance) for lipalipa. They helped many clans including Gumatj, Warramiri and Ganalbingu Malibirr (the artist’s tribe).”[1]
The fleets departed after the 1906–07 season as prohibitive tariffs made contact increasingly difficult. In the wake of the Northern Territory Land Rights Act 1976, Indigenous ownership was re-asserted over languages, histories and estates. Despite this sudden severance, oral histories of these bonds between peoples persisted in stories told and retold across generations. The enduring legacy of these interactions is evident in language, with some say up to 500 words shared between traders’ Malay and Yolngu Matha alone.
Coastal fishing continues in earnest in salt-water communities in South Sulawesi and environs despite decreasing catch sizes. In Makassar, the UNESCO world heritage listed art of wooden boatbuilding continues.
Jo Holder
Director, The Cross Art Projects
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[1] Story by Mathhew Teapot Djippurtjun, recorded with Hetty Watts and Gwen Warmbirrirr, Milimgimbi Art and Culture, July 2024.
Acknowledgements
In collaboration with Bábbarra Women’s Centre, Batchelor Institute Art Collection, Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre, Jilamara Arts & Crafts Association, Milingimbi Art and Culture. Special thanks: Maurice O’Riordan, Jessica Stalenburg, Will Stubbs, Dave Wickens and Zoë Slee.
Dhuwarrwarr Marika, Makassin Prahu, 2016, etching and aquatint on paper, 40 x 40 cm. Photo: Silversalt.
Margaret Rarru Garrawurra & Marcus Lacey, Lipa Lipa, 2024, wood, acrylic, ochres, natural fibres, 69 x 200 x 69 cm. Courtesy: Milingimbi Art and Culture. Photo: Silversalt.
Margaret Rarru Garrawurra & Marcus Lacey, Lipa Lipa, 2024, wood, acrylic, ochres, natural fibres, 69 x 200 x 69 cm. Courtesy: Milingimbi Art and Culture. Photo: Silversalt.
Gary Lee, Nate 17, 2024, type C print on Ilford cottonrag paper, edition size: 2 x A/P plus three prints (1/3/, 2/3, 3/3). 39 x 29.3 cm (image). Photo: Silversalt.
Ipeh Nur, The Body and Journey, 2019-2022, silkscreen print, edition 30 of 30, 30 x 300 cm (detail). Photo: Silversalt.
Ipeh Nur, The Body and Journey, 2019-2022, silkscreen print, edition 30 of 30, 30 x 300 cm (detail). Photo: Silversalt.
Ipeh Nur, The Body and Journey, 2019-2022, silkscreen print, edition 30 of 30, 30 x 300 cm (detail). Photo: Silversalt.
Ipeh Nur, The Body and Journey, 2019-2022, silkscreen print, edition 30 of 30, 30 x 300 cm. Photo: Silversalt.
Artists from Milingimbi Art and Culture in collaboration with Jonathan Daw Animation, Djambanpuy Dhawu (The Tamarind Tale), 2023, single-channel video, 3 min 38 sec. Courtesy: Milingimbi Art and Culture. Photo: Silversalt.
Raylene Bonson Rayleen, Wubbunj (Paperbark Canoe), 2025, screenprint on silk, 320 x 150 cm (#272-25). Photo: Silversalt.
Artist Unknown (early 21st century), Makassan style smoking pipes, c. 2010, acrylic on wood, 40 x 32 cm (each). Collection: Coomalie Cultural Centre, Batchelor, NT. Photo: Silversalt.
Bulthirrirri Wunungmurra, various works (installation view), The Cross Art Projects. Photo: Silversalt.
Bulthirrirri Wunungmurra, Rupa, 2023, bark painting, 98 x 50.5 cm (#4991-23). Photo: Silversalt.
Bulthirrirri Wunungmurra, Rupa, 2023, bark painting, 148.5 x 70 cm (#3741-23). Photo: Silversalt.
Bulthirrirri Wunuŋmurra, Rupa, 2023, ceramic, 38 x 41 x 41 cm (#7704-22). Photo: Silversalt.
Bulthirrirri Wunungmurra, Rupa, 2022, ochre on board, 61 x 51 cm #8129-22
Bulthirrirri Wunungmurra, Rupa, 2022, ochre on board, 61 x 51 cm #7868-22
Bulthirrirri Wunungmurra, Rupa, 2022, ochre on board, 61 x 51 cm #8113-22
Taripang / Dharripa / Trepang: REMIX, installation view. The Cross Art Projects. Photo: Silversalt.
Matthew Djipurrtjun, First travelling story, Makassan (telescope, tobacco, knife, rice, playing cards, wine), 2024, ochre on bark, 62 x 79 cm. Courtesy: Milingimbi Art and Culture. Photo: Silversalt.
Matthew Djipurrtjun, First travelling story, Makassan, 2024, ochre on bark, 63 x 65 cm. Photo: Silversalt.
Thomas Nanjiwarra Amagula, Macassan Fishermen in Perahu, 1970s, ochre on bark, 35 x 54 cm. Collection: Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education Art Collection. Photo: Silversalt.
George Pascoe Gaymarani, Untitled, 2006, ochre on bark, 40 x 78 cm. Collection: Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education Art Collection. Photo: Silversalt.
Taripang / Dharripa / Trepang: REMIX, installation view. The Cross Art Projects. Photo: Silversalt.
Patrick Freddy Puruntatameri, Purukuparli + Wai-ai (Bima), 2024, locally sourced ochre on bark, ironwood, feathers, 64 x 16 x 10 cm. Courtesy: Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association . Photo: Silversalt.
Patrick Freddy Puruntatameri, Purukuparli + Wai-ai (Bima), 2024, locally sourced ochre on bark, ironwood, feathers, 64 x 16 x 10 cm. Courtesy: Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association . Photo: Silversalt.
Detail of sail/dhomola by Margaret Rarru for collaborative work Margaret Rarru Garrawurra & Marcus Lacey, Lipa Lipa, 2024, wood, acrylic, ochres, natural fibres, 69 x 200 x 69 cm. Courtesy: Milingimbi Art and Culture.
Trepang exhibition timeline:
1947: Senior ceremonial leaders at Yirrkala produce vibrant crayon drawings compiled by anthropologists Ronald and Catherine Berndt, now in the Berndt Museum of Anthropology. Included is Mawalan Marika’s original work entitled ‘Makassan Swords and Long Knives’. Featured in the exhibition catalogue Yirrkala Drawings (AGNSW, 2013). Dhuwarrwarr Marika drew her inspiration from her father.
1960s: Mawalan Marika was also a key informant for Campbell Macknight, whose doctoral research on the trepangers is published as The Voyage to Marege: Macassan trepangers in northern Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1976. In this classic work Macknight presents ‘Australia’s first modern industry’.
1984: Artists: David Malangi with Margaret Gundjimirri, Judy Baypunala, Elsie Ganbada and Katy Bopirri. Commissioned by Djon Mundine OAM.
1988: Historian Peter Spillett’s epic counterpoint to the 1988 Bicentennial of British annexation: a reconstructed prahu titled Hati Marege/ Heart of Arnhem Land, built in Makassar makes landfall at Galiwin’ku and Yirrkala. Now in the Maritime Museum: Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. Spillett additionally worked with the Yolngu peoples to re-connect family lines across the archipelago.
1993: Johnny Bulunbulun and Maningrida dancers perform in Makassar.
1999: Important exhibitions initiated by Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre, Saltwater (1999) and Dalkiri: Standing On Their Names (2010), have helped non-Indigenous people to understand how the law codifies and maps obligations to the land, sea and sky.
2015: Makassar–Yirrkala Artist Exchange begun by Nawurapu Wunungmurra for Buku Larrnggay Mulka Centre.
2017: Yolngu/Macassan Project: Buku Larrnggay Mulka Centre collaboration with Abdi Karia and Bugis people to reconnect the shared history & culture between Macassan and First Nation’s People in Northern Territory-Australia. Yirrkala-Makassar exhibition in 2017.
2018: Makassan Arts Research and Global Encounters, or MAREGE Institute founded by Abi Nurabdiansyah and Ms. Lily Yulianti Farid to help initiate various art activities inspired by this topic. Since 2020, working with Monash University’s Global Encounters Monash (GEM) team to initiate various art activities in Makassar such as the animated film “The Last Trepangers”, the documentary “MAREGE: Awaiting Macassan”, and the international Marege symposium at UNM last year. They are working with MUMA Monash on “Awakening Histories” exhibition at Monash University Art Museum in October 2025. Also affiliated with Asialink University of Melbourne and UNIMELB’s Indigenous Knowledge Unit VCA with Aaron Corn and Marcia Langton.
2019: Rhizomatic Archipelago a project by Cemeti Institute for Art and Society with the Biennale Equator in Yogyakarta, commission Ipeh Nur to participate in the Kelana Laut Residence Program at Pambusuang, a fishing village in West Sulawesi, where she witnessed the process of padewakang boat building in Tana Beru, South Sulawesi.
2020: A second prahu, Nur Al Marege (in Arabic, Nur Al means ‘light of’ and Marege, ‘land of the black people’), takes the same wind and ocean current driven route as Hati Marege/Heart of Arnhem Land in 1988. The building of this perahu was documented by Ipeh Nur.
2020: By the Stars, Wind & Ocean Currents. Dhuwarrwarr Marika, Bulthirrirri Wunungmurra and Nawurapu Wunungmurra.
2020: Gululu dhuwala djalkiri: welcome to the Yolngu foundations, opens the new Chau Chak Wing Museum at Sydney University. The exhibition prominently featured works acquired in the 1940s and at Milingimbi and Ramingining in the 1980s, including a lipa-lipa and woven sail/dhomola (c. 1984) is the centrepiece.
2021: Dhomala Dhäwu: Makassan Sail Stories: Ipeh Nur & Margaret Rarru Garrawurra. Exhibition catalogue, https://www.crossart.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/dhomala-dhawu-e-publication-new.pdf
2021: Composing Archipelagos was included in the Ten Days on the Island Festival program and was supported by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Curator Jasmin Stevens selected artists whose work extend thinking around the relationship between land, sea and sky. It included Indonesian artists Aliansyah Caniago and Raisa Kamila.
2022: Yolngu/Macassan Project in the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial at Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Arts (QAGOMA).
2024: The exhibition Taripang/Dharripa/Trepang expands the field to include Tiwi Islands and Anindilyakwa islands. Curated by Petrit Abazi. Northern Centre for Contemporary Art and The Cross Art Projects in 2025.
2024: ‘Before 1770’ a documentary feature film is released detailing the relationship between the Northern Australian indigenous people (Yolngu Clan of North Eastern Arnhem Land) and the Indonesian Makassan relationship within a historical and contemporary context. Haji Mansour is a living indigenous/Indonesian example of this connection between both cultures as he oversees the building of a life-size replica prau (vessel) which sails across the Timor Sea to Arnhem Land. The documentary challenges the teachings of the Australian educational narrative and explores the untold story of a rich cultural exchange.
2025: The Islamic Museum of Australia, Melbourne features Abdi Karya in a tribute to the arrival of Muslim Macassan fisherman on the Northern Australia coast in the early 1700s.