Taripang / Dharripa / Trepang: REMIX

Thomas Nanjiwarra Amagula
Raylene Ngarridjdjan 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)

Dual Book Launch
Taripang Dharripa Trepang | NCCA exhibition catalogue +
Djon Mundine: Windows & Mirrors
Tuesday 15 July 6:30 to 8 pm

Introduced by Dr Nur Shkembi OAM (Artistic Director, Islamic Arts Museum Project, Sydney) and Dr Bernice Murphy (curator and academic), with comments by Petrit Abazi (Director, NCCA) and Dr Djon Mundine OAM (writer, artist and curator).

PURCHASE: Djon Mundine: Windows & Mirrors
PURCHASE: Taripang Dharripa Trepang | NCCA exhibition catalogue
______

Please note: The performance by Indonesian artist Abdi Karya has been postponed

Exhibition runs 7 June to 19 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

Dual book launch: ‘Taripang Dharripa Trepang’ + ‘Djon Mundine: Windows & Mirrors’, with speakers Dr Nur Shkembi OAM, Dr Bernice Murphy, Petrit Abazi and Dr Djon Mundine OAM.

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 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, songs and dances—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

–––––––

[1] Story by Mathhew Teapot Djippurtjun, recorded with Hetty Watts and Gwen Warmbirrirr, Milimgimbi Art and Culture, July 2024.

Note: After Indonesian independance, Makassar become the capital of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi. Makassar is used when referring to the place and Makasar when referring to its people. Macassan and Macassar are historic forms, often used in the context of fisherfolk in northern Australia.

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: Abdi Karya, Maurice O’Riordan, Jessica Stalenburg, Will Stubbs, Dave Wickens and Zoë Slee. To our special guests and speakers: Djon Mundine, Bernice Murphy and Nur Shkembi.

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. 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, 148.5 x 70 cm (#3741-23). Photo: Silversalt.

Bulthirrirri Wunungmurra, Rupa, 2023, ceramic, 38 x 41 x 41 cm (#7704-22). Photo: Silversalt.

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, 2024, ochre on bark, 63 x 65 cm. 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.

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.

Senior Kuninjku artist Raylene Ngalamyorrk Bonson (L) and curator Alison Cooper (R) visit The Cross Art Projects from Maningrida. Here Raylene stands in front of her ‘Wubbunj (Paperbark Canoe)’ work on silk. Printed at Bábbarra Women’s Centre the design depicts the traditional canoes of the people of Maningrida, and the historical meeting of elders from the Narlarrambarr area with Makassan sailors. As Raylene recalls, “A long time ago, our people carved these canoes from big paperbark trees. They had paddles, with one person at the front, one at the back, and other kids and passengers in the middle. Kunkot (paper bark) was used to make the sails, which would stand up and catch the wind. One day, these old people saw a new boat in their waters, which belonged to the Makassans (Indonesians). Those two old men saw the big Makassan boat coming in and decided to paddle their canoe from Narlarrambarr to the other side (modern day Maningrida).”

Artists

Thomas Nanjiwarra Amagula (c.1924–1989.)
Born Anindilyakwa/Groote Eylandt Thomas Nanjiwarra Amagula MBE, was a distinguished painter and community leader. His paintings are in the traditional Anindilyakwa stye of using coloured ochre on a stark black background. As Chairman of the Angurugu Council in the late 1960s, he helped negotiate areas to be protected from mining and in 1974 was the second Aboriginal magistrate in the Northern Territory and a Justice of Peace. He played the role of Charlie in Peter Weir’s film, The Last Wave, 1997. Collections: National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria and British Museum. Source: Batchelor Institute Art Collection.

Raylene Bonson
Raylene Bonson is a senior textile artist working with Bábbarra Designs since 2012. She follows in the footsteps of her late mother, Nancy Gununwanga, a founding member of Bábbarra Women’s Centre. Of her work Makassan Boat with Bottles and Rope she says, “In this design I have painted the Makassan’s rope, smoking pipe and the pottery vessels they bought with them on a boat. Our people had never seen these things before they bought them across from Indonesia. When those two old people tasted that water at Maningrida from the Djomi spring, it was sweet freshwater and they decided to stay here. People here had no clothes in those time, we were just wearing string morkoi (loin cloths). Seven tribes were here then, but now in Maningrida there are lots more languages.” – Raylene Bonson. Source: Bábbarra Women’s Centre.

Artists from Milingimbi Art and Culture + Jonathan Daw Animation
Djambanpuy Dhawu/The Tamarind Story is a 3-minute film made over two-weeks as a Youth School Holiday stop motion animation project in collaboration between Milingimbi Art and Jonathan Daw Animation. The film is a homage to the trade between the Makassan traders and Yolgnu and re-creates a relationship that defines a shared history and cultural identity. The children, in collaboration with elders, artists, and arts workers, crafted sets, modelled characters, sequences and sound effects. They translated senior Gupa George Milaypuma’s narration into English subtitles. Source: Milingimbi Art and Culture.

Matthew Djipurrtjun
Matthew Djipurrtjun is a Ganalbiŋu Malibirr man and is also known as Teapot (a name he inherited from his maternal grandfather). He lives in Milingimbi by his mother’s Gamalaŋga country, but his country is around the Arafura Swamp east of Ramingining. His family belongs to the Gandarrŋur Malibirr people, whose country is gandarrŋur (meaning ‘in the middle’). Djipurrtjun comes from a strong line of artists, including his father’s father Ŋulmarmar, his father Djilminy, his father’s brother Milpurrurru and aunt Djukuḻuḻ. He also paints his mother’s Gamalaŋga miny’tji (clan design), for which he is djuŋgaya (ritual manager). Djipurrtjun and his brothers were taught by their father to paint and sing and dance manikay (ancestral songlines). He is an emerging cultural leader. Source: Milingimbi Art and Culture.

Margaret Rarru Garrawurra + Marcus Mungul Wunuŋmurra (Lacey)
Rarru is a senior artist and master weaver at Milingimbi Art and Culture. Rarru was born in Galiwin’ku (Elcho Island) in 1940 and today lives on her mother’s country of Laŋarra (Howard Island) and at Yurrwi (Milingimbi Island), both off the coast of Arnhem Land. Rarru engages with the Balanda (European) world through her art and is recognised and awarded for striking minimalist sculptural forms including Mindirr Mol (black conical baskets) and her breathtaking dhomola/woven sails.  Rarru and her sisters are exclusively associated with the use of their recipe for black dye from local plants. In 2007 she won the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award bark painting category for her work Ŋarra Body Paint Design representing her homeland of Garriyak and the journey of the Djan’kawu Sisters. In 2022 she won the overall first prize in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award with a large-scale woven sail, once used on fishing boats between Arnhem Land and Makassar.

Her grandson, Marcus Mungul Wunuŋmurra (Lacey) heard stories of the Makassans from his momu (paternal grandmother), Margaret Rarru Gurrawurra, when she visited him at Galiwinku. While Yolŋu made their own ṉaku (canoes) from barks, they learned how to make dugout canoes from the Makassans. Rarru instructed him on the art of making a lipalipa. Sources: Milingimbi Art and Culture and https://www.crossart.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/dhomala-dhawu-e-publication-new.pdf

George Pascoe Gaymarani
George Pascoe Gaymarani is a Ngurra law custodian/elder from Maningrida. Pascoe’s work Untitled bark painting (2006) from Batchelor Institute Art Collection depicts legacies relating to Macassan/Yolngu history such as clay pots and rice. Pascoe’s painting also relays the story of one Yolngu man who travelled back with the Makassans but who tragically died mid-voyage and honoured by a funeral at sea.

Nicholas Gouldhurst
Gouldhurst a commercial photographer and filmmaker living in Darwin documented the Taripang exhibition and interviewed speakers and the curator.

Patrick Freddy Puruntatameri
Patrick Freddy Puruntatameri is a renowned carver known for his carvings of his totem, the jurrukukuni/owl. His father Paddy Freddy Puruntatameri (ca. 1925-2002) taught him how to source the pigments and ironwood for his sculptures. Puruntatameri (Jnr) manages the Murrunungumirri Carvers’ Shed at Jilamara Arts and Crafts, named after his father, and where he too mentors younger artists. Skin: Miyartuwi (Pandanus). Source: Jilamara Art Centre.

Gary Lee
National Gallery of Victoria calls Gary an icon. He is a photographer, an anthropologist, a playwright, a curator and a queer Larrakia man. Born in Garramilla/Darwin in 1952, Lee has been at the forefront of activism, academia, and artistry since the 1980s. He has won many accolades, including a Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Art Award for work on paper in 2022. Lee prioritises Larrakia truth-telling in direct conversation with colonial imagery of his ancestors. Lee engages with the archive to both challenge colonial myths and bring new perspectives to life. Source: Gary Lee at https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/another-other-the-photo-politics-of-gary-lee/ and https://www.crossart.com.au/exhibition-archive/gary-lee-midling-2-larrakia-together/

Michelle Woody + Colin Heenan-Puruntatameri
Michelle Pulatuwayu Woody Minnapinni is a senior artist and artsworker at Jilamara and oversees the Muluwurri Museum collection held at the art centre. She traces her ancestors back through story to Purukuparli and his Mother Murtankala – the original wulimaka – old lady who came up from underground and brought light by making the sun with fire. She is dedicated to teaching the younger generations to keep culture strong and alive.

Colin Heenan-Puruntatameri is an emerging artist and artsworker at Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association established in 1989 and owned and governed by artists from the community of Milikapiti on the Tiwi Islands.

Mrs D. Marika

1976. Marika (c.1946-2025) was from the Rirratjingu and Miliwurrwurr clans of Yalangbara in north-east Arnhem Land. Her father Mawalan Marika was the Rirratjingu ceremonial leader who in 1935 welcomed anthropologist Donald Thompson and Methodist missionaries and together they founded the settlement at Yirrkala. But Mawalan never lost his respect for the Makassan sojourners and stressed the importance of the relationship between Yolnu and these allies. Mawalan and his brothers helped press the historic Gove Land Rights Case that led to the passing of the first land rights legislation in Australia in 1976. His daughter was one of the legendary first generation of women painters and was soon represented in most Australian state galleries. In 2010 the National Museum of Australia presented Yalangbara: Art of the Djang’kawu, an exhibition of artworks by the Marika family.

Source: https://www.crossart.com.au/exhibition-archive/by-the-stars-wind-ocean-currents-dhuwarrwarr-marika-bulthirrirri-wunungmurra-nawurapu-wunungmurra-30-november-to-8-february-2020/ 

Ipeh Nur
Yogyakarta-based artist Ipeh Nur has been investigating maritime culture in different parts of the Indonesian archipelago since 2019. Her storytelling often builds on an open interpretation of ancient mythologies, artefacts and archaeological objects. Her work has appeared in Artjog and Cemeti Institute for Art and Culture in Yogjakarta and The Cross Art Projects (with Margaret Rarru) and 16Albermarle (with Enka Komariah) both in Sydney, and the current Sharjah Biennale. Ipeh Nur layers or transforms gallery spaces into excavation sites using materials such as karst, soil, wood and sand to blur boundaries between the past, the present and the speculative future including the rapidly eroding coastline and climate crisis. Source: text by curator Alia Swastika. © Sharjah Art Foundation

Bulthirrirri Wunungmurra
Bulthirrirri is an emerging artist and the niece of great painter and sculptor Nawurapu Wunungmurra (dec). Under the guidance of her grandfather (recently deceased) Bulthirrirri is following and maintain her family’s rich heritage through her own hand.

Source: https://www.crossart.com.au/exhibition-archive/by-the-stars-wind-ocean-currents-dhuwarrwarr-marika-bulthirrirri-wunungmurra-nawurapu-wunungmurra-30-november-to-8-february-2020/

Resources

Dhomala Dhäwu: Makassan Sail Stories, Ipeh Nur & Margaret Rarru Garrawurra (2021) Digital Publication (PDF)

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’.

1976: Campbell Macknight publishes, The Voyage to Marege’: Macassan Trepangers in Northern Australia.

1984: Artists: David Malangi with Margaret Gundjimirri, Judy Baypunala, Elsie Ganbada and Katy Bopirri. Commissioned by Djon Mundine OAM.

1986: Students from Bachelor College-Northern Territory visited Ujung Pandang (former name of the city of Makassar), to visit the significant sites related with the trepangers and met with the families of the Husain Daeng Rangka (Yutjing)—the last Makassan captain who sailed in 1907 after the Immigration Act was applied. This visit initiated the Hati Marege project.

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.

1996: Led by Peter Spillet, a group of artists from Gowa through Sanggar Sirajuddin Bantang undertook a month long residency with the Yolŋu communities in Galiwin’gku (Elcho Island).

1997: Trepang opera project directed by Andrish St.Claire was presented at Darwin Festival.

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.

2002: Anne (Annie) Clarke – worked on Groote Eylandt doing community archaeology since 1990 and in 2018 began the Groote Eylandt Archaeology Repatriation Project with the Anindilyakwa Land Council, returning archaeological collections, photographs and archives to Groote Eylandt, re-visiting and re-documenting places with Traditional Owners. Clarke publishes on application of social theory to archaeology, the archaeology of art and major syntheses of such important topics as trade and exchange.

2007: Australia Performance Exchange developed a collaborative theater project between Teater Kita Makassar and Bangarra Dance Theatre, involving directors Sally Susman-Julie Janson-Asia Ramli Prapanca and performers from Makassar, Yirrkala and Sydney.

2014: Skinnyfish Music presented Gurrumul Yunupingu at the Makassar Jazz festival. Before departed to Darwin, Abdi Karya facilitated a short city tour in Makassar downtown for Gurrumul and his musicians and told the story of the trepang and the old Makassar city.

2015: Adrian Vickers and Julia Martínez publish, The Pearl Frontier: Indonesian Labor and Indigenous Encounters in Australia’s Northern Trading Network.

2015: Makassar–Yirrkala Artist Exchange begun by Nawurapu Wunungmurra for Buku Larrnggay Mulka Centre.

2017: BUDJUNG. A Makassan-Yirrkala Exhibition Project. Produced and curated by Will Stubbs and Abdi Karya and supported by Buku Larrnggay Mulka Centre, Australia National Museum and Autralian General Consulate in Makassar, to reconnect the shared history and culture between Makassan and First Nation’s People in Northern Territory-Australia. Budjung in Yolngu Matha and bugis means water pot. The old style Makassan pots were sent over to be painted in Yirrkala by Yolngu bark painting masters who are holders of the story, and then returned to Makassar to be exhibited at the Makassar City Museum. In this same year, the Concert of The Voyage to Marege was conducted and composed by Indonesian composer Ananda Sukarlan and presented with Indonesian western classical musicians and Djakapurra Munyarryun and Ngulmiya Nundhirribala.

2017: Celebrating the 70th Australia-Indonesia governmental relationship, DFAT produced The Voyage to Marege.

2018: Rumata Art Space and the Willin Centre initiated the Yirrkala-Makassan Artist Exchange involving artists including Nurabdiansyah, Adi Gunawan, Muhammad Rais, Arian Pearson and Ishmael Marika. The project was led by Lily Yulianti Farid, founder and director of Rumata Art Space and member of Global Encounters Monash University.

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: Global Encounters Monash (GEM) Monash University founded by Lynette Russell: a research project awarded $2.94 million over five years to explore encounters between Australia’s Indigenous peoples and voyagers from the sea over the period of a millennium.

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: Founding of Marege Insititute at Univesitas Negeri Makassar at https://marege.unm.ac.id/ (The coast of North Australia is known as Marege, and the passage is commonly referred to as the Jalur Teripang.) Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visits Makassar. Symposium on Makassan – Marege Encounters held at Univesitas Negeri Makassar in 2024.

2022: Treasures from Marege: Yolŋu-Makassan trade today by Diane Moon and Will Stubbs, article at https://garlandmag.com/article/yolnu-makassan-project/

2022: Yolngu/Macassan Project in the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial at Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Arts (QAGOMA). See more.
Yolŋu – Makassan project part of the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art. Co-curators: Abdi Karya and Diane Moon.
Artists: John Bulunbulun, Ganalbingu people (1946-2010), Australia; Nalkuma Burarrwanga, Gumatji, born 1973, Australia; DIE2TIE Studio, Indonesia; Gunybi Ganambarr, Ngaymil people, born 1973, Australia; Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr, Datiwuy people, born 1959, Australia; Abdi Karya, born 1982, Indonesia; Dr B Marika Ao, Rirratjingu people, born 1954, Australia; Dhuwarrwarr Marika, Rirratjingu people, born c.1945, Australia; Barayuwa Munuŋgurr, Djapu people, born 1980, Australia; Djakapurra Munyarryun, Wangurri people, born 1973, Australia; Margaret Rarru, Liyagawumirr people, born 1940, Australia; West Sulawesi Artisans, Indonesia; Ms M Wirrpanda, Dhudi-Djapi people, 1947–2021, Australia; Djirrirra Wunungmurra, Dhalwangu-Narrkala people, born 1968, Australia; Nawurapu Wunungmurra, Dhalwangu people, Australia 1952–201.

2023: Wind Talks: Barrak-Dhimmurru | Barrak-Timborok. A Yolngu-Makassan exhibition at the Broadmeadows Town Hall Gallery (Victoria) during the Salam Festival. Curated by Abdi Karya and directed by Ayesha Bux. See more.

2024: Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA), Rumata Artspace, and Faculty of Arts and Design, Universitas Negeri Makassar (UNM), South Sulawesi, Indonesia, initiate Breeze: Perth-Makassar Artist Exchange Program, a three-year annual program supported by Project 11.

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: Feature-length documentary Wangany Mala, directed by Will McCallum along with producers Abdi Karya, Arian Pearson and Horst Liebner, underlining the hundreds of years prior to British annexation of the east coast of Australia, and the deep ties between Indonesian and First Nations people. The film was presented at the Melbourne International Documentary Film Festival, Garma Festival and the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival. See more.

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.

2024: Prolog Ecosystem in Makassar hosted a mini concert and cultural tour for Ngulmiya Nundhirribala from Numbulwar Arnhem Land. The trip included a visit to historical places and sites mentioned in Numbulwar’s songlines. A concert for the young people on Makassar at The Wall art centre involved a group of families from Nusa Tenggara Timur, reconnecting people from Arafura regions.

2025: Yolŋu power: the art of Yirrkala at Art Gallery NSW offers a comprehensive insight into some celebrated artists from Yirrkala and the development of an art movement whose contribution to Australian art is profound.  Exhibition catalogue available AGNSW.

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.