Home Participants 25th Biennale of Sydney (2026) Isa Yubuyu McDinny
Isa Yubuyu McDinny
Isa Yubuyu McDinny
‘My name is Isa Yubuyu McDinny. I was born in Manangoora across the river from the station under the little date tree in the Gulf of Carpentaria on the 22nd of April ,1952.
My skin name is Nangalama and I am Mambaliya clan.
My dreaming is Kurlyukurlyu; Brolga, and my country is Wubunjawa near Marrinybul. I am Garrwa from my father’s side and Yanyuwa from my mother’s side. Isa is the eldest daughter of Dinny McDinny.
Isa McDinny brings her lived experiences of traditions and land into her paintings, creating powerful landscapes. Isa’s painting recalls her vivid memories from the old days and she captures these in her art. Isa’s first painting is a pencil drawing in fine detail map of her birth place Manangoora. Isa’s paintings come to her in her dreams they come from her father; specific colours ,marks and evocative images, a powerful expression of her father’s voice,
“ From my father, his places he showed me Likajarrayinda coming down…the creek. Up top is Warngkurlarli, my father’s country. The painting is inside the rocks…
and these rocks here, we call it … dungala…
and that’s why we go there all the time you know, missing that place, looking after the place for my Dad.
We always go there.
That’s where the old people used to paint, before. We look after this country.”
Isa Yubuyu McDinny CV
Solo Exhibtions:
2025 Warnkurlarli – Karen Brown Fine Art, Darwin NT Australia 2023 From My Father – Karen Brown Fine Art, Darwin NT Australia 2022 Warnkurlarli – Karen Brown Fine Art, Darwin NT Australia
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2024 Manankurra, Strong Country – Karen Brown Fine Art, Darwin NT Australia
2024 We Are Still Here – CIAF, Cairns, QLD Australia
2023 Connections – Graham Geddes Gallery, Melbourne VIC Australia
2023 Ngurraungi Yarji, Our Family’s Country – Karen Brown Fine Art, Darwin NT Australia 2022 Munjimunjingu Kurrburr, All the Bush Fruit & Medicine – Karen Brown Fine Art, Darwin NT Australia
2021 Manankurra and Mardarinni, Travelling this Country – Karen Brown Fine Art, Darwin NT Australia
2020 Seven Rivers – Karen Brown Fine Art, Darwin NT Australia
Music:
2023 Waralungku, Arrkula Yinbayarra feat Shellie Morris
2012 Ngambala Wiji Li-Wunungu, Together We Are Strong, Shellie Morris & The Borroloola Songwomen
Documentaries:
2017 Journey West 1982 Two Laws
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