Mandawuy Yunupingu
Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, educator
Died when: 56 years 258 days (680 months)Star Sign: Virgo
Mandawuy Djarrtjuntjun Yunupingu AC, formerly Tom Djambayang Bakamana Yunupingu; skin name Gudjuk; also known as Dr Yunupingu (17 September 1956 – 2 June 2013) was an Australian musician and educator.
An Aboriginal, in 1989 he became assistant principal of the Yirrkala Community School – which he once attended – and was principal for the following two years.
He helped establish the Yolngu Action Group and introduced the Both Ways system, which recognised traditional Aboriginal teaching alongside Western methods.
From 1986, he was the frontman of the Aboriginal rock group Yothu Yindi as a singer-songwriter and guitarist.Yothu Yindi released six albums: Homeland Movement (1989), Tribal Voice (1991), Freedom (1993), Birrkuta - Wild Honey (1996), One Blood (1999), and Garma (2000).
The group's 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.
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 of the World's Indigenous People (IYWIP).
In April 1998, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Queensland University of Technology.He died in 2013, aged 56.
