Turnbull’s predecessor, Tony Abbott, tweeted: “A hauntingly beautiful voice is now still.”
More comfortable speaking in his native language than in English, Yunupingu avoided media interviews and lived most of his life on remote Elcho Island.
He first picked up a guitar as a 6-year-old, learning to play it upside down because he was left handed. He suffered years of ill health, having contracted Hepatitis B as a child, which left him with liver and kidney disease.
In 2012, he had to cancel a number of European performances due to illness, including performing at the London Olympic Games.
Friend Vaughan Williams took Yunupingu to the hospital last week over concerns he may not have been receiving renal treatment more than 500 kilometers (320 miles) away at Elcho Island.
Williams said he felt the death was “preventable,” which made it more crushing.
“I feel he was trapped in the same cycle of bad health that so many indigenous people are trapped in,” Williams told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Aborigines are the most disadvantaged ethnic group in Australia. They die younger than other Australians and suffer higher incarceration and jobless rates.
Skinnyfish managing director Mark Grose declined to detail Yunupingu’s health problems, which he described as “quite complex.”
“His health issues are issues that have come from childhood illness,” Grose told reporters. “His early childhood is really what’s marked him out for passing away early.”
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