Tom Djäwa

1905–1980

Djäwa was a senior ceremonial leader and artist who was acutely aware of the need to document Gupapuyŋu culture to ensure its continuity.

He recorded songs with the ethnomusicologist Alice Moyle and played a major role in two documentary films by Cecil Holmes: Faces in the Sun (1963) and Djalambu (1964).

From 1960 his work was included in a number of historically significant exhibitions in Australia and overseas, and he is represented in major collections in Paris and Basel, and in the Kluge-Ruhe Collection at the University of Virginia.

See our video 'The work of Tom Djäwa', with reflections on Djäwa's work by his son, Joe Gumbala.