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Wandjuk Marika was born on Bremer Island (Dhambaliya). During early childhood, he travelled by foot
throughout the lands of the Top End and by canoe around the coast of North East Arnhem Land from Melville
Bay to Caledon Bay. The eldest son of Mawalan Marika and his wife Bamatja, Wandjuk inherited extensive rights
to land and ritual knowledge of several clans—including Rirajingu. On his father’s death in 1967, he became
custodian of Yalangbara, the sacred Riratjingu beach where the Djankawu landed on the shores of Australia.
Djankawu were the primary creation ancestors of the Dhuwa moiety of East Arnhem Land.
When Reverend Wilbur Chaseling started the Methodist Overseas Mission at Yirrkala in 1935, Wandjuk
Marika was one of the first children taught to read and write, although he had learnt to write the alphabet with stick
and paperbark from Burrumarra, a Warramirri clan leader from Elcho Island. Burrumarra was Wandjuk Marika’s
mother’s brother, that is, his ‘father’.
During his life Wandjuk Marika was notable as the translator of the Bible into Gumatj for the Methodist
Overseas Mission, interpreter for his father Mawalan to anthropologists Ronald and Catherine Berndt, and advisor
to many government departments, including the Welfare Branch of the Northern Territory Administration, (among
whose staff was Ted Evans, H C Giese and Ted Egan), the Office of Aboriginal Affairs 1969–1972 (Chairman
Dr H C Coombs). He was a member of the Aboriginal Arts Advisory Committee of the Australian Council for the
Arts 1970–1973, then of the Aboriginal Arts Board of which he was chairman from 1975. Other positions held
include Director, Aboriginal Artists Agency, Director Aboriginal Arts and Crafts Pty Ltd and Member, Advising
Committee of Australian Institute for Aboriginal Studies, Canberra.
He visited many countries including the United Kingdom, Russia, Canada and New Zealand and often advised
Aboriginal organisations throughout Australia on cultural matters. About 1981, in London, he attended a Royal
Command Performance of Yidaki. Wandjuk Marika acted in the films Right Stuff and Where the Green Ants Dream
(director W Herzog) and appeared in a Film Australia documentary of the memorial ceremony for his father called
Memory of Mawalan 1973 (director Ian Dunlop).
Wandjuk Marika was a major artist of North East Arnhem Land, concentrating on bark paintings of Dhuwa
designs relating to Yalangbara, Djankawu, the thunderman, Wuyal honey man, turtle hunters, the Wawilak
sisters and Murrurruma the hunter. In 1995, his life story as told to the author was published by the University of
Queensland Press under the title Wandjuk Marika: Life Story.
He wrote many forewords to Aboriginal Arts Board publications particularly catalogues during the 1970s
and early 1980s including: Aboriginal Australia, The Australian Gallery Directors Council Ltd., Sydney, 1981;
An Exhibition of Aboriginal Art of North Australia, Exhibition Catalogue, Aboriginal Arts Board of the Australia
Council, Sydney; Art of the First Australians, Exhibition Catalogue, Aboriginal Arts Board of the Australia
Council, Sydney; Oenpelli Paintings on Bark, Exhibition Catalogue, The Australian Gallery Directors Council
Ltd, Sydney.
Publications in which his life and/or art are discussed and/or illustrated include: Louis Allan, Time Before
Morning: Art and Myth of the Australian Aborigines, Rigby Limited, Sydney, 1976; The Australian Aboriginal
Heritage Catalogue for the 5th Festival of Asian Arts, B A V Peacock editor, produced by the Hong Kong Museum
of History, Hong Kong, the Urban Council, 1980; R M Berndt, Love Songs of Arnhem Land, Thomas Nelson
Australia Limited, Melbourne, 1976; R M Berndt, Three Faces of Love: Traditional Aboriginal Song-Poetry,
Thomas Nelson Australia Limited, Melbourne, 1976; Wally Caruana, Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson,
Singapore, 1993; Wally Caruana, Australian Aboriginal Art: A Souvenir of Aboriginal Art in the Australian
National Gallery, The Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1987; Wally Caruana, Windows on the Dreaming:
Aboriginal Paintings in the Australian National Gallery, Australian National Gallery, Ellsyd Press, Canberra
1989; Jennifer Isaacs, Australian Dreaming: 40 000 Years of Aboriginal History, Lansdowne Press, Sydney
1980; Margo Neale, Yiribana: An Introduction to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Collection, the Art
Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1994; Stories on Bark: The Australian
Museum 1980 Calendar, Paintings by East Arnhem Land Artists, Narrative by Wandjuk Marika; The Australian
Museum, Sydney, 1980; Edgar Wells, Reward and Punishment in Arnhem Land 1962–1963, Australian Institute of
Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, 1982.
J Isaacs, Wandjuk Marika, 1995.
JENNIFER ISAACS, Vol 3.MARSH, HENRY ROLFE (c1821–1909), master mariner and public servant, was born in England in about- He spent a number of years in South Australian waters and commanded the barque Rebecca during the
1850s. He was first appointed to South Australian government service on 12 April 1870 and arrived in the Northern
Territory on 2 December 1872 as master of the government cutter Flying Cloud. He had first seen the north as mate
of Gulnare in 1870.
Marsh was appointed Port Darwin Harbourmaster on 8 March 1876, soon after the retrenchment of William Cook,
the first such appointment. Marsh was still expected to command the cutter (or any other vessel in the government
fleet). He remained on the temporary list until permanently gazetted on 30 December 1880 and remained in this
position until he left the north on 15 November 1897. No other Harbourmaster to this day has served for such a
lengthy period.
As with so many of his fellow public servants, he was not dealt with kindly by the South Australian government.
He had difficulty, for example, in obtaining suitable housing and office accommodation. The government expected
him to live on board the cutter Flying Cloud. In 1879, he advised the Marine Board in Adelaide that he had applied
for a residence and an office but the request had gone unanswered. Among his duties he was required to post up