Gaypalani Waṉambi, Winner of the Telstra NATSIAA Art Award. Courtesy and copyright Telstra and MAGNT. Photographer: Charlie Bliss
Gaypalani Waṉambi
PROJECT
Here Gaypalani Waṉambi reclaims discarded road signs, embellishing them with her signature sacred minyi’tji (clan designs). Meticulously etched across the backs of the signs, Waṉambi’s minyi’tji convey the journeys of the Ancestral honey hunter, Wuyal, a foundational figure who shaped the Marrakulu clan’s homelands of Gurka’wuy in north-east Arnhem Land. Waṉambi fills the surface with thousands of delicately engraved dawurr (honeybees) and worrpurr (stringybark blossoms), which grow throughout Gurka’wuy. Together, the dawurr and worrpurr celebrate life cycles, the seasons and relationships between people and place. Contextualised within the recent Arnhem Land Found movement, the road signs of Gukumirri Mayaŋ also highlight the devastating impacts of industry on Country.
The acquisition of this artist’s work is supported by the Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, Anonymous, Barbara Hay and the Hay Family, Katherine & James Murray, Jon Langford and Debra & Michael Langford.
ABOUT
Gaypalani Waṉambi is a Yolŋu, Marrakulu woman and leading figure in the Yirrkala-based ‘Found Movement’, which focuses on using materials ‘found’ on the land etching onto reclaimed industrial materials such as discarded road and street signs. Waṉambi’s early years were spent assisting her father, the late Mr W. Waṉambi (1962–2022), who was an early adopter of this exciting innovation in Yolŋu creative and cultural practice. Following in the footsteps of her father, Wanambi’s approach to this medium was also carried out with meticulous attention to detail. However, Gaypalani’s subject matter differs, instead focussed on translating sacred minyi’tji that speaks to the journeys of Wuyal, the Ancestral honey hunter. Waṉambi’s works are represented in major public collections throughout Australia, including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Powerhouse Museum, and Parliament House, as well as numerous private collections. Waṉambi was recently awarded the Wynne Prize 2026, the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA) 2025, and the Ravenswood Women’s Art Prize 2024.