Howard Morphy interview

In March 2023 Howard Morphy, distinguished anthropologist and Emeritus Professor in the Research School of Humanities and the Arts at the ANU, was interviewed by 2022 ANU Art Collection Intern Scholarship recipient Talissa Smith. In this interview, which you can watched below or on our youtube channel, they discussed the origins of Professor Morphy’s long-term research on Yolgnu art, and significant yolngu bark paintings in the ANU Art Collection by artists including Narritjin and Banapana Maymuru, both from Djarrakpi country, Yolngu people, Manggalili language/clan, Yirritja moiety, and ANU Creative Arts Fellowship recipients in 1978.

Professor Morphy has conducted extensive fieldwork with the Yolngu people of Northern Australia since 1974 and published widely in anthropology and museum studies with a primary focus on art, material culture and land rights. His pioneering analysis of Yolngu art and aesthetics has been foundational in the study and understanding of Aboriginal art and non-Aboriginal art in academia. He was an expert witness in the Blue Mud Bay case, in which Yolngu art as law (rom) was integral to the case. Morphy has advocated the inclusion of Yolngu voices, inviting leaders to visit and contribute to ANU research, acknowledging and incorporating their work as integral to Australia’s cultural and intellectual life.

This rich interview spans Morphy’s early doctoral research; the emergence of artist co-operatives in locations such as Maningrida and Yirrkala; Narritjin Maymuru’s role in the 1963 land rights bark petition, which paved the way for major land and sea rights claims in Arnhem land; and the origin and significance of works by both Narritjin and Banapana Maymuru, which are now held in the ANU Art Collection.

This oral history project was made possible through the 2022 ANU Art Collection Scholarship – Supported by Andrew Dyer & Donna-Marie Kelly.

Image: Banapana Maymuru, (1944-1986), Yirrkala, North East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Mangalili clan, Yirritja moiety, Manggalili language, Djarrakpi landscape, 1978. Pigments on board. ANU Art Collection. Gift of the artist.