Paul Bong-Bindur Bullin

Yidinji Artist | Printmaker |

Story-Keeper

Paul Bong, also known by his Language name Bindur Bullin, is a Yidinji artist from Far North Queensland. Born in 1963 on Yidinji Gimuy country (Cairns), Paul’s cultural lineage stretches across the rainforest lands from Cairns to Babinda and into the Atherton Tablelands, the Yidinji country is shaped by rivers, stone, thick dense rainforest, and ancient story hidden deep within the surrounding caves.

Growing up, Paul was taught traditional knowledge by his grandmother, who spoke (Yidin) the Yidinji language and passed down stories of animals, bush foods, sacred places and ancestral memory. These stories didn’t just form his childhood, they became the foundation of his creative life.

Today, Paul lives and works in Nanango, continuing to create art that honours his people, his country, and the complex history carried within both.

His work is not simply decorative, it is cultural record-keeping, remembrance, resistance, and healing.

Historical black-and-white photograph of a group of indigenous people, both standing and seated, dressed in traditional attire with painted faces, holding shields and spears, outdoors with trees in the background.
Paul Bong, wearing a dark t-shirt, standing in front of a large artwork.

Art Style, Practice & Philosophy

Paul’s artistic practice occupies a powerful intersection between ancient cultural knowledge and contemporary visual language. Drawing upon traditional Yidinji symbolism and storytelling, his work is realised through Western fine-art printmaking techniques, including

  • etching,

  • intaglio,

  • drypoint,

  • collagraph,

  • and hand-painted layering.

This fusion enables Paul to communicate across generations and cultures, using contemporary processes to carry stories that predate colonisation by tens of thousands of years. His practice honours ancestral knowledge while asserting its ongoing relevance within the present.

Central to many of Paul’s works is the traditional rainforest warrior shield. Historically carried by young Yidinji men as a source of protection, strength, and identity, these shield forms are reimagined as visual story-maps. Within them are embedded narratives of cultural survival, loss and fragmentation, memory and displacement, ancestral strength, and acts of reclamation and continuation.

Paul often describes his printmaking process as “sculpting into a flat surface.” Through repeated carving, scratching, layering, and reworking of plates, each mark is made with intention and purpose, and each texture carries cultural and conceptual meaning.

While deeply grounded in Yidinji culture, Paul’s work speaks to universal human themes, including identity, resilience, trauma, survival, and spirit. His artworks operate beyond the visual realm; they are simultaneously emotional, political, spiritual, and historical, offering spaces for reflection, connection, and dialogue.

A cloes up of Paul holding a brush and painting an aboriginal shield on paper

Recognition & Public Works

Paul’s work is widely recognised across Australia and internationally.

His art is held in major public and private collections, including:

  • The National Museum of Australia (Canberra)

  • Cairns Art Gallery

  • Other major institutional and private collections across Australia and overseas

His work has also appeared in significant public spaces, including:

  • Major airport installations (including Brisbane International Airport)

  • Street-level public artworks in Cairns

  • National gallery exhibitions and curated cultural shows

Paul has been exhibiting professionally since the late 90s and holds a formal Associate Diploma in Arts (Cairns). Beyond technical mastery, however, his true authority comes from lived cultural knowledge passed down through generations.

Each exhibition, print series and public commission continues a much older tradition: telling the story of country and people through image, symbol and mark.

Series of Aboriginal shields with geometric patterns in red, yellow, white, and black on a dark blue wall, displayed at Brisbane International Airport.
A traditional tribal photograph of an indigenous person with dark skin, adorned with body jewelry, face paint, and natural accessories, including necklaces and clothing made of natural materials and decorations such as leaves or plant fibers.

Paul’s art is not created for trends or decoration

It exists to preserve culture, honour ancestors, confront difficult history, and ensure that Yidinji stories continue to be seen, felt, and remembered.
Every print, whether a small square work or a large shield series, carries meaning far beyond the surface.

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