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Banduk Marika was born in Yirrkala, Arnhem Land, in 1954. She belongs to the Rirratjingu clan of north-east Arnhem Land or Miwatj region. Marika comes from a celebrated family of talented artists and was taught to paint by her father, the renowned bark painter Malawan Marika. She works in linocut, screenprint and also on bark. Banduk Marika’s work is held in many public and private collections. Her numerous honours and positions have included artist-in-residence at the Canberra School of Art and at Flinders University, manager of the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Arts Centre in Yirrkala and board member of both the National Gallery of Australia and Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory. She has been a member of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board of the Australia Council and in 2001 was awarded the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board’s prestigious Red Ochre Award for lifetime achievement. In 2005 she was the recipient of the Telstra Bark Painting Award.

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Issue date: 30 January 2026

Title

This special issue of four stamps features works by two eminent artists from the northern regions of Australia’s Northern Territory, Banduk Marika and Bede Tungutalum.

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Issue date: 30 January 2026 | 3

Ticket to Tokyo

This special issue of four stamps features works by two eminent artists from the northern regions of Australia’s Northern Territory, Banduk Marika and Bede Tungutalum.

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Time	Audio	Visual
0:00	Music played mostly on fiddlers starts in the background.	A young girl dressed in clothes from the 1800's is standing in the middle of a dirt road with an old two-story building made entirely of wood. The scene is reminiscent of an old western movie set. The building behind the girl has a Telegraph sign on it. A boy, taller than the girl, and dressed in clothes also of the time, walks towards the girl.
0:01	Australians have been collecting stamps for over 150 years,
0:02		The girl opens up her book of stamps to show the boy
0:03	a couple of decades after stamps were first issued in 1840.	Zoom in to the two children as the girl points to something in the open book. She leafs through a few more pages of the book.
0:08		Cut to the two children now sitting at a table inside an old house. They are each looking through their own books of stamps. The girl again points to one particular stamp and the boy looks over at it.
0:09	Kids would collect stamps as a hobby, asking their family and friends to save stamps from letters and envelopes they received.
0:17	News about valuable stamps,	Video now shows the words "Valuable Stamps" appearing letter by letter on a white page
0:20	like the famous American stamp called the US Inverted Jenny from 1918,	Camera zooms down the page to a headline that reads "US Inverted Jenny" "Worth more than gold"
0:22		The camera pans right to show an image of the "Inverted" Jenny stamp. It is a small almost square perforated stamp with a white border. Inside is a dark red line engraving with the words US POSTAGE and CENTS. One the bottom right and left of the stamp is a small dark red circle with 24. In the middle is a blue line drawing of a plane displayed upside down.
0:24	which sold in 2016 for over one and a half million dollars!	Text "SOLD FOR OVER 1.5 MILLION" is stamped over the stamp.
0:26	and the world’s most valuable stamp,	A large art-deco styled banner appears on screen. It is black, white and grey. The text THE WORLD'S MOST VALUABLE STAMP is shown
0:29	the 1856 one cent British Guiana Stamp,	Text: 'The 1856 One Cent British Guiana' appears with an image of that stamp underneath. It is burgundy in color in a hexagon shape. Little of the text is readable as there is also a postmark obscuring the old text. The only word legible is GUIANA at the bottom of the stamp.
0:33	worth over 12 million dollars! has led to a huge interest in stamp collecting.	Text: 'Worth over 12 Million Dollars' appears
0:38	The value of stamps is determined by their age, their scarcity and their condition.	On a background of floating stamps an odometer with the text Age Scarcity Condition at the top and a needle, grey with red tip, pointed at word low. The needle slowly moves to the right until it comes to rest on the word High.
0:43	But collecting is not just about a stamp’s value - it’s fun to collect colourful,	Cut to a scene of 4 children sitting beside an outside play area. The play area is in a park surrounded by grass and trees. The equipment is a complex amalgamation of ropes, wood, steel and blue plastic. The children are sitting in a circle looking at stamp albums. Using magnifying glasses to look more closely at the stamps. Sharing and talking to each other.
0:48	interesting or unusual stamps, sort them into an album, and trade them with your friends!	Close up on two of the children as they look at the stamps and albums more closely. The girl has a magnifying glass in her right hand and the boy is sitting crossed legged.
0:50		The two swap stamps
0:53	Each year Australia Post dedicates a whole month to stamp collecting	A spinning page from a calendar displaying July comes into view. It then flips over to August., September then October before zooming in again
0:58	and every year a different theme is chosen for a series of exciting new stamps and products	The calendar page then zooms out rapidly, to show a selection of stamp collecting months stamps from previous years. The stamps then zoom in to reveal a white background.
1:02		A new illustration of a country scene with green hills and trees comes into focus.
1:04	like the endangered species series which featured some Australia native animals including	Two children appear in the scene along with the $1 Southern Corroboree Frog stamp, in the bottom right-hand corner, from the 2016 Endangered Wildlife stamp issue.
1:06		The trunk of an elephant is seen in the right of the video frame as the camera zooms out.
1:08	the Orange-bellied parrot and the Southern Corroboree Frog,	As the camera continues to zoom out we see an illustration on the left of the video frame of a Southern Corroboree Frog on a fallen log and on the right an orange-bellied parrot perched on a tree.
1:10	as well as some exotic species like the Asian Elephant, and the Western Lowland Gorilla.	The camera continues to zoom out and now a gorilla is seen on the left and more of the elephant on the right. The girl in the middle is looking through binoculars and turning around on the spot
1:17	We’ve also explored the depths of our solar system where we took a thrilling ride	The video transforms to show a young boy in a spacesuit. In the right-hand bottom of the screen is the 70c Saturn stamp from the Our Solar System stamp issue. The camera zooms out from the boy as he looks around
1:20		Behind the boy, an image of Earth can be seen.
1:22	through space and visiting all 8 planets;	The zoom out increases quickly and the eight planets and the sun of our solar system replace the disappearing boy.
1:26	from the inhospitable heat of Mercury and Venus	The focus of the video is then changed to the two planets closest to the sun, Mercury and Venus.
1:28	through to the eerie, cold gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn.	Action zooms to the right with a new focus on Jupiter and Saturn.
1:32		Back to an illustrated scene again, this time of prehistoric earth. Two children are facing the left of the screen while two erupting mountain volcanoes explode in the background, behind a Tyrannosaurus Rex. In the bottom right-hand corner of the screen is the 60c Qantassaurus stamp from Australia's Age of Dinosaurs 2013 stamp issue.
1:33	And we travelled way back in time with some beautifully illustrated drawings of some weird and wonderful	The children are walking and looking around themselves, high and low, while the dinosaur moves behind them.
1:37	and sometimes scary, dinosaurs.	The Tyrannosaurs Rex makes a loud roar and the camera quickly turns to focus on the children as they look around with fear in their eyes. They turn to look to where the dinosaur was making the noise.
1:40		The camera zooms out again and we see the full picture of the dinosaur roaring and the children cowering in fear.
1:43	All you need to start your own collection	Replacing the previous screen the video now shows an inside spread of the Star Trek stamp pack
1:45	is a stamp album and some stamps.	Image flips to show the two inside pages of the Peppa Pag stamp pack that zooms in gently before revealing
1:47	You can buy stamps from your local Australia Post shop,	the inside spread of the Danger Mouse stamp pack.
1:49	swap them with your friends, or ask your family to save stamps for you.	Image flips again to show the inside spread of the Giggle and Hoot stamp pack.
1:51		Image flips once again, now showing the inside spread of the Superman stamp pack.
1:54	Stamp collecting	The text 'Stamp Collecting' appears comprising of a multiple coloured overlay.
1:55	is a lot of fun.	The text 'is a lot of fun' appears comprising of a multiple coloured overlay.
1:57	And who knows, you may even find a rare stamp worth a lot of money!	The upside-down Jenny aeroplane comes into the screen from the right-hand side. It moves all the way to the right and is gone.
2:01		Australia Post logo
2:02		Text 'auspostcollectables.com.au' appears below the logo.
2:12		Video ends.