Early Life
He was born in Yirrkala in Arnhem Land, an Aboriginal Reserve in the northeastern part of the Northern Territory of Australia. He is a member of the Yolngu people. His father's name is Mangurrawut Yunupingu. His skin name was Gudjuk, which means hawk. His name was changed to Mandawuy when a family member with the same name died, in line with Yolngu custom. Yunupingu means "rock that stands against time".
He is the younger brother of Galarrwuy Yunupingu, a senior elder of Arnhem Land, who was Australian of the Year in 1978 and remains a force in Australian politics. One of his sisters is the artist Gulumbu Yunupingu.
Read more about this topic: Mandawuy Yunupingu
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“Today’s pressures on middle-class children to grow up fast begin in early childhood. Chief among them is the pressure for early intellectual attainment, deriving from a changed perception of precocity. Several decades ago precocity was looked upon with great suspicion. The child prodigy, it was thought, turned out to be a neurotic adult; thus the phrase “early ripe, early rot!””
—David Elkind (20th century)
“On wings of morning our prayers and devotions are soaring.
All of creation awakens, the Maker adoring.
Join in the song. Harmonies blending along,
Vigor and life now restoring.”
—Jane Parker Huber (b. 1926)