Australian Dictionary of Biography

Nipper Marakarra Gumurdul (c. 1882–1964), knowledge holder, ceremonial leader, cultural mediator, and artist, was born between 1880 and 1884 on Mandjulngunj Country, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. The names of his parents are not known; however, his father’s name may have been Gumurdul, as missionaries would later create surnames based on known patrilinear family members. His father spoke Mengerrdji and was of the Mandjulngunj clan, and his mother spoke Kunwinjku and was of the Murruwan clan. Marakarra was given his Ngarradjku matrimoiety and Nawamud skin name through her. He spoke both of his parents’ languages and a handful more, as well as English.

The colonial frontier began to plant its roots in Mandjulngunj Country during Marakarra’s childhood and adolescence, shaping his life to come. Patrick (Paddy) Cahill established Oenpelli cattle station (later Oenpelli mission and then Gunbalanya) on Mandjulngunj Country in 1910, though he had been shooting buffaloes in the area for much longer. During the 1910s Marakarra worked as a buffalo shooter for Fred Smith at Kapalga on the west bank of the South Alligator River, returning to Oenpelli each wet season. Marakarra was there when the anthropologist (Sir) Walter Baldwin Spencer visited the station in 1912. He and others shared artwork and critical information about cultural traditions and beliefs, informing Spencer’s magnum opus Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia (1914).

Deeply concerned about the changes outsiders were bringing to Mandjulngunj Country, Marakarra lived permanently at Oenpelli from about 1916. Cahill was known to have affairs with Aboriginal women and was interfering with local traditions and power structures, prompting Marakarra and several others to ‘poison that one Paddy Cahill’ (cited in Mulvaney 2004, 119) in 1917. The attempt on Cahill’s life was unsuccessful; however, Cahill knew that Marakarra was one of those responsible. As he could not prove it, he found another way to have Marakarra punished. Subsequently, Marakarra spent six months in Fannie Bay Gaol, Darwin, for killing a cow. On his release he returned to work for Cahill as a stockman, a role he also fulfilled for the Church Missionary Society when it took over at Oenpelli in 1925.

Marakarra was one of Catherine and Ronald Berndt’s primary informants during their anthropological fieldwork at Oenpelli in 1947, 1949–50, 1958, and 1961. They collected some of his artworks and he shared elements of cultural life with them, leading to their influential work Man, Land, and Myth in North Australia: The Gunwinggu People (1970). In 1948 he acted as a cultural mediator for the American–Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land. The expedition’s leader, Charles P. Mountford, called him Kumutun, a possible variant spelling of Gumurdul. Marakarra introduced Mountford to rock paintings on Injalak Hill and at Ubirr, including his father’s painting, and showed and explained the cultural significance of rock art. Mountford collected at least three bark paintings created by Marakarra: one depicting Namadkkarn spirit beings, one depicting three men spearing a crocodile, and a third depicting a macropod and a hunter with spears.

As the area’s senior Traditional Owner, Marakarra played a crucial role in all undertakings at Oenpelli. Aboriginal people from near and far who wanted to settle there had to seek his permission. In some cases, this resulted in marriage alliances: he had six known wives and at least fourteen children, two of whom were adopted. Photographs taken at Oenpelli during this period emphasise his status. In a photograph from the mid-1920s taken by the missionary Alfred Dyer, young and old men line up around Marakarra for a ceremony. He wears a European leather belt and a traditional biting bag, signalling his authority and gesturing to his ability to walk in two worlds.

Elders at Gunbalanya remember Marakarra as an authoritarian leader who sometimes had to make difficult choices. He employed both diplomatic skills and brute force to maintain control. Aboriginal community members sometimes rejected his leadership decisions. In 1928 he was attacked with an iron bar, receiving severe head injuries and broken fingers. Not all of his leadership decisions were popular, even among his family members. For example, he put his children into the mission school to mitigate the influence of the new European settlers and prepare his family and kin for leadership roles. This strategy was not welcomed by his adopted son Frank Djenjdjulung, who reflected: ‘Should have been staying in bush all the time … but father brought … everybody here to go to school and learn English’ (quoted in May et al. 2020, 5). Marakarra learned to read and write, as extant letters penned by him attest. He agreed to be baptised in 1952 and was confirmed in 1955. Nevertheless, he continued to practise Ancestral Law and act as a ceremonial leader—though not on Sundays.

Surrounded by his extended family, Marakarra died of old age at Oenpelli in February 1964 and was buried in the community cemetery. In Gunbalanya he is remembered as a leader who skilfully navigated and strategically controlled his changing world and whose work as a cultural mediator actively shaped and reshaped outsiders’ understandings of First Nations peoples. His artwork, found at cultural institutions across Australia, stands as a testament to his life, his Country, and the depth of his cultural knowledge.

Sally K. May is Australian and Joakim Goldhahn is of Swedish descent. May and Goldhahn were living on Kaurna Country when the article was written. Julie Narndal Gumurdul is Marakarra’s daughter to Mainbara, his youngest wife. She lives in Oenpelli, her Mandjulngunj clan Country.