Sydney, Jun 5 (IANS/EFE): Aborigine singer Mandawuy Yunupingu, leader of the iconic band Yothu Yindi, died at his home in the town of Yirrkala in northern Australia, media reports said. He was 56.
Yunupingu, honoured in 1992 as one of the Australians of the year for his efforts to bring indigenous and non-indigenous people together, suffered for years from kidney problems, ABC reported.
Yunupingu was the first Aborigine from the remote region of Arnhem Land to earn a university degree, the first of that ethnic minority to run a school, and was a legendary singer who used music to promote the culture of the indigenous people who had been marginalized and discriminated against for decades in Australia.
In 1986 he was one of the founders of the Yothu Yindi band, a group that produced six albums and won six ARIA Awards, the top popular music prize in Australia.