Manganinnie star Mawuyul Yanthalawuy AM leaves a legacy as an actor and teacher after his death at 85

In 1979, 40-year-old Darwin kindergarten assistant Mawuyul Yanthalawuy answered a national casting call to play the lead actress in what would become an arthouse feature film.

Note to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers: Mawuyul Yanthalawuy’s name and image are used here in accordance with the wishes of her family.

She boarded a plane in the tropics of the Northern Territory and disembarked on a film set in Tasmania.

“I don’t think anyone will ever achieve what she achieved again,” said director John Honey.

Yanthalawuy died peacefully in Darwin on November 18, at the age of 85, more than forty years after she rose to public fame for her starring role in the film Manganinnie.

Set in 1830s Van Diemen’s Land, the fictional drama depicts the survival of a Palawa woman during the Black Wars – a time of raids and massacres of First Nations people in the penal colony.

“It was a critical success,” Honey recalled.

“It was very well received in the festival world around the world, in France and in the Soviet Union.

“It won awards… and remained an important part of the international festival circuit for a long time.”

The film was restored by the National Film and Sound Archive in 2007 and has retained its place in the national film landscape.

The role is one that Yanthalawuy was extremely proud of, according to her daughter Nadyezhda Dilipuma Pozzana, who said that “every Yolŋu person was bursting with pride”.

“My mother was a national treasure and many people knew and respected her,” she said.

Yanthalawuy was born in 1939 on the island of Milingimbi off the north coast of Arnhem Land.

She was only four when the Japanese bombed her community in one of more than a hundred attacks in the north.

“(Yanthalawuy) told us the story of the mothers and fathers who told their children, ‘Run, run, run into the mangroves so they can’t see you’ as they bombed the Milingimbi community,” said great-grandson Jeremiah Larrwanbuy Baker . .

She learned to read and speak English while working as a housekeeper in missionary homes and became known for her stories.

“She had a regal presence,” said Manganinnie co-star Anna Ralph.

“She was a very striking woman, but she was also a lot of fun.”

Professor Ralph is now deputy director of the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin, but in 1979 she was a child actor for the first time, working opposite the Yolŋu actor.

She said “being so immersed in Aboriginal culture… especially as a white kid growing up in Tasmania in the 1970s” was an eye-opener.

“It was a very formative experience for me,” she said.

Professor Ralph credited it as the inspiration for her career in Aboriginal health in the Northern Territory.

“I think it’s an example of the very diverse impact she’s had on so many different people,” she said.

Yanthalawuy became a leader in the field of bilingual education and dedicated decades of her life to her students.

“She was not a trained teacher… she was born with it,” said independent Mulka MLA Yiŋiya Mark Guyula.

“She used those skills to teach kids, and one of those kids was me.

“She was a mother who became a teacher… who showed where we have been, Yolŋu, and where we need to go.

Yanthalawuy’s contribution to education and film is one that colleagues and loved ones now hope will be recognized with a state funeral.

Condolence speeches were held in the NT Parliament this week, but Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro’s office has yet to confirm whether a state funeral will be offered.

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