Banula Marika
aboriginal Australian dancer, actor and performer
Banula (David) Marika is an Aboriginal Australian dancer, actor, singer and performer from Yirrkala in North East Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia. The son of Roy Marika, he is a member of the Rirratjingu clan of the Yolngu people, and is known for his performances with the Bangarra Dance Theatre since the 1990s.
He is credited as David Manula Barika for his role as didgeridu player in Jindalee Lady (1992), and as Banula (David) Marika for his first role as an actor in the film Bedevil (1993),
His stage performances with Bangarra include Up Until Now (1991), Praying Mantis Dreaming (1992-3) and Bloodland (2011-2). He also served as cultural consultant on Bangarra's 2020 television production of Ochres.
He has performed as both vocalist and dancer and toured extensively with the band Yothu Yindi, including on their famous song "Treaty". He performed vocals on their third album, Freedom (1993). He also performed with them in a joint project with East Journey, called Genesis, in 2015, which included a performance at the National Indigenous Music Awards 2015.
He has collaborated with founder of the Australian Dance Theatre, choreographer Elizabeth Cameron Dalman, in a work entitled Morning Star (2012–3). Marika is custodian of the Morning Star (Barnumbirr) story, and served as cultural consultant on the work. The Mirramu Dance Company performed Morning Star in March 2013 at the James O. Fairfax Theatre, National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Banula Marika” is aboriginal Australian dancer, actor and performer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Banula, Marika and aboriginal, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “aboriginal Australian dancer, actor and performer” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q108008702. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1992, 1993, 1991 and 2011.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Banula Marika”, its source revision and the description used here.
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Banula Marika” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.