Ron Yunkaporta is the principal Song-Man and titular head of the Apelech clan of the Wik Aboriginal people of north Australia, and holder of responsibilities for the Law Poles entitled “thuuth thaa’-munth”. As a prominent maker of Law Poles for traditional mortuary ceremonies, Yunkaporta has played a leading role in expanding the role and location of such carvings. Law poles have recently been commissioned and prominently displayed in Australian art institutions, where the crossover from community encodings of cultural law to contemporary art raises—but does not directly address—issues of cross-cultural translation and exchange.

Yunkaporta began carving for exhibition in about 1995, and is the first Apelech sculptor to contribute a set of contemporary law poles to a European collection—the Aboriginal Art Museum in Utrecht—in 2007. His work was also featured in the major survey exhibition Story Place: Indigenous Art of Cape York and the Rainforest (Queensland Art Gallery, 2003).