M Marika, custodian of Yolŋu land and culture, died on June 4th, aged 64

M Marika, custodian of Yolŋu land and culture, died on June 4th, aged 64

In the Yolŋu worldview, land and people are not separate things. They are interwoven—spirit, soil, and songline one and the same. Few embodied that unity more steadily than M Marika, a senior elder of the Rirratjiŋu clan, who died this month in north-east Arnhem Land. He was 64. For more than three decades, Marika stood as a pillar of his community—not by force of volume or title, but through a resolute commitment to his people, their future, an…