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The Jury Art Prize 2026
Ngurula (Sea Tern)
Ruby Djikarra Alderton
Acrylic on canvas
Ngurula is the traditional Yolngu name for the sea tern or crested tern and is a significant totem for the Dhuwa moiety and the Rirratjingu clan. Ngurula represents the flight of the spirit across the seas after death. During mortuary ceremonies, participants link clan groups together using long, white feather strings representing the tern's wings, legs, and tail.
The bird figures prominently in the creation and clan estates of the Rirratjingu people, flying across sparkling waters to catch small fish between Yirrkala and Dhambaliya (Bremer Island). The ancestral flight path of Ngurula connects three homeland estates belonging to these clans – Yirrkala, Barrdarbarrday and Croker Island. Each of these places can be seen in the context of Ngurula as a nesting place called Gamarrwa.
The original ancestors turning into seagulls themselves. Today Ngurula being a physical manifestation of the ancestral soles of these three connecting clans. Elements of ritual for the Yolngu of North-east Arnhem Land cannot take place without the presence and participation associate clan groups - from either the mother’s or the mother's mother's side... This painting can refer to the association the artist's clan (the Rirratjingu based at Yirrkala) has with its grandmother's clans (the Djambarrpuyngu and Mardamarday clans).
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About the Artist
Ruby Djikarra Alderton
Pilbara
I am a Gumatj, Yolngu woman from Yirrkala Community, 800km’s North-East of Darwin, situated on the p of the Gulf of Carpentaria, Arnhem Land, NT.
I honestly couldn’t tell you when exactly I started my own arsc journey. Some of my earliest memories are being creave with Mum & Dad at home, and what an incredible privilege to have two diversely creave parents.
My mother the late Dr B Marika AO (1954-2021), was a truly fierce, strong, amazing woman. She was so incredibly rich with knowledge, and we miss her deeply every day. Mum was taught to paint by my grandfather, Mawalan (1) Marika (1908-1967) with ochres, on stringy bark.
Not only was my grandfather an arst, but he was also clan leader of the Rirratjingu bapurru (clan). Rirratjngu are the tradional owners of Yirrkala, where the mission appeared in the 1930s. He was also a statesman who helped iniate Australia’s first Aboriginal land rights case in 1963. My grandfather was also the inial plainff in the case, Milirrpum and Os. v. Nabalco Pty. Ltd. and the Commonwealth of Australia 1971.
I (the youngest of Mum's 5 children) was born in the township of Nhulunbuy in Gove Hospital in ‘93. When I was lile Dad and I moved away to Darwin, where we lived for a few years. Aer which we moved down south to Newcastle, NSW, to be closer to my paternal grandparents. Regardless of my birthplace both states (NT & NSW) will always be home to me.
As a teenager I returned to Yirrkala to live with Mum. This is when she encouraged me to not only help her in her pracce but to really think about my own art pracce as well.
Mum being one of the first Indigenous printmakers in the country, naturally, this is what led me to be becoming a printmaker and arts worker myself. Most holidays were spent with mum at Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Arts Centre, where I went on to work as a printmaker/arts worker for 3 years.
In 2013 I became a mother myself and aer having my second child in 2014 I decided to move back to Newcastle. During my me living in Newcastle, I worked as an independent arst and also with ArtBack NT & Buku with a naonally touring exhibion, Balnhdhurr – A Lasng Impression.
Fast forward to 2021, we lost Mum suddenly and nothing could have possibly prepared me for what felt like being hit by a freight train. I couldn't even contemplate creang anymore, so I just stopped. I needed something new, somewhere new, a fresh start.
By Christmas 2022 my lile family and I found ourselves on the other side of the country, right here in Port Hedland, WA. I walked into Spini one aernoon as an arst trying to find my way back to creavity, now 3 years later I am proudly a praccing arst again & the Studio Technical Co-Ordinator.
Spinifex Hill Studio is such a bright & welcoming space and pivotal in helping me with my healing.