This vast area encompasses multiple language and clan groups. To ensure cultural maintenance on their lands, ceremonies connected with the major interconnected creation stories are conducted annually over the region.

With a deep knowledge and passion for truth and justice, artists of Yirrkala in the far east of Arnhem Land have an unbroken history of making important works to establish spiritual and political records of their rights to clan lands and sacred waters. An example in ‘Transitions’ is Yalangbara c.1960 by Mawalan 1 Marika and seven other artists. Mawalan was the revered leader of the Rirratjingu people of north-eastern Arnhem Land and father of a dynasty of talented artists, including Wandjuk Marika (1927–87) and Dhuwarrwarr Marika (b.1945).  

From early 1950s and 1960s ‘traditional’ works on bark, Yolngu artists from the Yirrkala region have honed their craft to become perhaps the most successful community of artists to emerge from the bark painting tradition. With a passion inherited from their forbears they have committed to ever more creative artistic expressions, with works included now in major Australian art exhibitions and on the world stage.