Mandawuy Yunupingu

Mandawuy Yunupingu
Gudjuk
A 44-year-old Aboriginal Australian man standing upon a stage, wearing light blue jeans, a black unbuttoned jacket, a yellow shirt and a headband. He holds a portable microphone in his left hand at his side and is staring ahead. Behind him is band equipment on a screen lit up in a green display.
Yunupingu performing with Yothu Yindi in 2000
Born
Tom Djambayang Bakamana Yunupingu

(1956-09-17)17 September 1956
Yirrkala, Northern Territory, Australia
Died2 June 2013(2013-06-02) (aged 56)
Yirrkala, Northern Territory, Australia
Other namesGudjuk, Dr Yunupingu
Occupation(s)Musician, school principal
Years active1985–2013
FatherMungurrawuy Yunupingu
Musical career
GenresAboriginal rock
Instrument(s)Guitar, vocals
Formerly ofYothu Yindi

Mandawuy Djarrtjuntjun Yunupingu AC, formerly Tom Djambayang Bakamana Yunupingu, and also known as Dr Yunupingu (17 September 1956 – 2 June 2013), was a teacher and musician, and frontman of the Aboriginal rock group Yothu Yindi from 1986. He was an Aboriginal Australian man of the Yolŋu people, with a skin name of Gudjuk.

Yunupingu was a singer-songwriter and guitarist with the band. Yothu Yindi released six albums between 1989 and 2000, and their top 20 ARIA Singles Chart appearances were "Treaty" (1991) and "Djäpana (Sunset Dreaming)" (1992). The band was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2012.

In 1989 Yunupingu became assistant principal of the Yirrkala Community School and was principal for the following two years. He helped establish the Yolngu Action Group and introduced the both-ways education system, which recognised traditional Aboriginal teaching alongside Western methods. His wife Yalmay Yunupingu taught alongside him at the school.

Yunupingu was appointed Australian of the Year for 1992 by the National Australia Day Council. In 1993, he was one of six Indigenous Australians who jointly presented the Boyer Lectures "Voices of the Land" for the International Year for the World's Indigenous People. In April 1998, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Queensland University of Technology.