Newsflash - 21 September 2006

Gulumbu Yunupingu by popular vote is the Deadliest Aboriginal Visual Artist of the Year in the 2006 Vibe Magazine Deadly Awards. She traveled with her daughter to Sydney and the Opera House for the ceremony, and was honoured to, alongside Ten Canoes winners Jamie Gulpilil and Peter Djigirr, represent the Yolngu People of northeast Arnhem Land. This is just the next step in an incredible year for Gulumbu.

January 2006 - Sellout exhibition at the prestigious Alcaston Gallery in Melbourne.

February 2006 - Appeared in the Going Bush TV series on SBS, where she lead a healing ceremony for Olympic gold medalist Cathy Freeman and actress Deborah Mailman in the final episode, shot at the Gumatj clan homeland of Bawaka.

March 2006 - Milkarri at the Adelaide Festival. Yolngu women's keening ceremony performed onstage for the first time by Gulumbu with sisters Nyapanyapa and Djerrkngu plus Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr and Mutilnga Burarrwanga, accompanied by son Milkayngu Mununggurr and brother Balupalu Yunupingu. 'It certainly left a deep impression on the large audience present. These Milkarri songs of mourning are an incredibly moving experience: not a performance as such but a time of intimate sharing, healing and celebration of the human spirit... To experience its exquisite beauty and power was a privilege. One of the most special events in the 2006 Adelaide Festival, it will linger long in my memory' (Graham Strahle, The Australian).

April 2006 - Screenprint accepted as finalist in the National Work on Paper Award in Victoria.

May 2006 - Work exhibited in New York in an exhibition of Australia's leading contemporary artists.

June 2006 - Traveled to Paris for opening of the Musee de Quai Branli, met President Chirac and spoke on behalf of the eight indigenous artists whose work was built into the Museum as their gift to the world. She assumed a major role in talking with the French and international media.

July 2006 - Major exhibition of her work opened in a Paris gallery.

August 2006 - Lead the Garma Festival Women's programme including ceremonial healing and medicinal knowledge. Her work was also exhibited in the outdoor gallery set amongst the Stringybark trees on the edge of an escarpment.

Throughout this time she continued to make art and generously share her knowledge with countless academics, media and community members. She also honoured her ceremonial and family duties. She tended to the dying, the sick and the sad and all the time kept as her main focus lifting the sights of her grandchildren's generation to dream of reaching the stars.

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