Liwukaŋ Bukurlatjpi, A New Australian Flag (1989)
“We can and must live together under one law under one flag.” — Burrumarra, 1989
By Ian McLean
Issue 4, Summer 2025
Not one to miss the political opportunity of Australia’s 1988 bicentenary, in 1989 the Yolŋu buŋgawa (headman) of the Warramiri nation, Burrumarra (ca. 1917–94), sent a two-page proposal for a new Australian flag to Indigenous and government organisations (which I quote from). It included
illustrations of the flag taken from an enamel painting on plywood that Burrumarra asked his brother Liwukaŋ, a prominent bark painter, to do. Another brother, Wulanybuma, assisted. Most striking are the bright colours, pop-pastiche, mixed metaphors, and transcultural appropriations. Looking nothing like brand Yolŋu — that, for example, Liwukaŋ’s traditional ochre bark paintings exemplify — it is more postmodern, more like Gordon Bennett meets Constanze Zikos.
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