Gawirrin Gumana is a talented bark painter whose artwork has been collected internationally since 1966. Gumana is also one of the painters of the Yirrikala Church Panels. The panels inspired the Bark Petition of 1963 that signified to non-Indigenous Australians that Aboriginal claims to the land pre-dated British arrival in 1788. Using his skills as an interpreter, Gumana played a vital role in the 1968 Yirrakala land claim which eventually led to the enactment, by the Commonwealth of Australia, of laws protecting the land rights of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory. He is a theological scholar, a Uniting Church minister, a cultural ambassador and a leader of the Yolngu people in Arnhem Land. In 2002 Gumana won the Telstra National Aboriginal Art Award. In 2007 Gumana was awarded a PHD (honoris causa) by Charles Darwin University.
