Mandawuy Yunupingu was a major Aboriginal-Australian singer. musician, and songwriter who founded the famous indigenous rock-&-roll band known as "Yothu Yindi". Born in Arnhem Land within the Northern Territory of Australia in 1956, Yunupingu was a member of the Gumatj people. He was the first Aboriginal from Arnhem Land to obtain a university degree and in 1985 started a band with another famous Australian - his nephew Gurrumul Yunupingu, a multi-instrumentalist and singer. The band would become Yothu Yindi and by 1988 they were supporting Midnight Oil in Australia and North America. In 1991 they came to national prominence with their hit song "Treaty". Yunupingu died at the age of 56 in 2013.
