In the early 1980s, Djambawa Marawili began painting, incorporating the idea of buwuyak (invisibility) in his works, which was an innovative change in the Yolngu art tradition. His paintings often show the Yathikpa ancestral story of the bay where Bäru turned into a crocodile from a human figure. With works that capture both innovation and tradition, Marawili has become one of the most significant artists from the Yolngu community. Because his works capture tradition and historical meanings, the paintings of Marawili are also used as a source of history and records, especially in the legal battle to protect the right of the Yolngu land.
His paintings that portray sacred traditional designs demonstrate the right and purpose to speak for and protect their sea and land. Because of this reason, this portrayal shown in the Saltwater: Yirrkala Bark Paintings of Sea Country exhibition played a significant role in the Blue Mud Bay sea rights case where Marawili arranged for the Sea Right claim to the Federal Court in 2004. Eventually, the case went up to the High Court, and they gave Yolngu the ownership of the intertidal zone, between high and low tide marks.
Outside of his life as an artist, Marawili has served in many leadership roles to support and bring an awareness to the Indigenous community, including being an appointed member of the Prime Minister's Indigenous Advisory Council, in both its first (2013-2017)[9] and second (2017- ) terms.
Djambawa was the leading member of the first Yolŋu delegation that ceremonially opened Maḏayin at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth.