Gurrumul Yunupinga has died, aged 46.
AUSTRALIAN musical great Dr G Yunupingu has died, aged 46, after a long battle with illness, his music label has confirmed.
The multiple ARIA-Award-winner, whose full name news.com.au has withheld for cultural reasons, died in Royal Darwin Hospital about 5pm on Tuesday.
Dr G Yunupingu was a rare figure in Australian music — a quiet, media-shy talent who let his delicate, transcendent voice and native language speak for themselves.
“Dr G Yunupingu is remembered today as one of the most important figures in Australian music history, blind from birth and emerging from the remote Galiwin’ku community on Elcho Island off the coast of Arnhem Land to sell over half a million copies of his albums across the world, singing in his native Yolngu language,” his label Skinnyfish Music said in a statement.
“His debut album cemented him as the Australian voice of a generation, hitting triple platinum in Australia, silver in the UK and charting in multiple other countries across the globe.
“The highest selling indigenous artist in history, Dr G Yunupingu released two subsequent top five studio albums,
Rrakala and
The Gospel Album, achieved a swag of ARIA Awards, performed across the globe for audiences including Queen Elizabeth II and Barak Obama and released the first indigenous language single to reach the top five, all the while continuing to call Elcho Island home.
“Dr G Yunupingu also gave back to his community as the driving force behind the G Yunupingu Foundation, creating opportunities for young people across the Northern Territory.
“His legacy as a musician and community leader will continue as his life’s work continues its positive impact on Elcho Island, the Northern Territory, Australia and the world.
“Skinnyfish Music and Dr G Yunupingu’s family ask for your respect at this time.”
His daughter Jasmine posted an image on Facebook with the caption: “My father/My everything”.
Dr Yunupingu first came to prominence as part of the celebrated indigenous band Yothu Yindi, best known for the 1991 hit
Treaty.
He released his first solo album in 2008, which peaked at number three on the ARIA charts and went triple platinum.
He has performed live with Stevie Wonder, Delta Goodrem and Missy Higgins, and has won praise for his voice from icons such as Elton John, Sting and Björk.
He graced the cover of
Rolling Stonemagazine in 2011, which labelled him as “Australia’s most important voice” and a portrait of him by Guy Maestri won the Archibald Prize in 2009.
Dr Yunupingu’s death comes weeks before
a documentary about his life is set to debut at the Melbourne Film Festival.
Dr Yunupingu has long battled the effects of hepatitis B and kidney disease, which he has suffered from since childhood.
He nearly bled to death in Royal Darwin Hospital last year after suffering internal bleeding for eight hours, Skinnyfish Music managing director Mark Grose alleged at the time.
Mr Grose said the bleeding was related to an ongoing liver condition, but medical staff wrote him off as an alcoholic.
“I believe there was an assumption that he was a drinker, and his problems were caused by alcohol and that the effort going into saving him would be useless anyway because he’d just go back drinking,” he said, according to the
ABC.
“Again I’d just like to say his condition is not related to drinking.”
Then Northern Territory Health Minister John Elferink branded
the complaint a publicity stunt, a claim Mr Grose said was “despicable”.
News.com.au has chosen not to use Dr Yunupingu’s image for cultural reasons, pending family permission.
https://amp.ntnews.com.au/entertain...6/news-story/3f66d5d62a3228d99cfaddb228f554f6