Walala Tjapaltjarri Paintings

Walala Tjapaltjarri and his family group were amongst the last nomadic desert dwellers to leave the desert to join their kinsmen in the small settlements that had grown around the periphery of their homelands. They were named “the Last Nomads” and “the Group of Nine” when they appeared in the tiny community of Kiwirrkura in Western Australia in 1984.

When the family came in from the desert it was a momentous event. Until then they had remained isolated from their relatives who had chosen to leave their desert homelands twenty years earlier. The family group had roamed between waterholes around Lake Mackay, along the border country between Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Their diet was dominated by goanna and rabbit and bush-foods harvested from native plants.

The family group consisted of four brothers (Warlimpirrnga, Walala, Tamlik, and Yari Yari), three sisters (Yardi, Yikultji and Tjakaraia) and two mothers (Nanyanu and Papalanyanu). The boys and girls were all in their early-to-late teens, although their exact ages were not known; the mothers were in their late 30s.

The father had died, possibly from eating spoiled canned food that he found at an old mining camp. After this, the group travelled south to where they thought their relatives might be, as they had seen signs of smoke in that direction. They met up with a man from Kiwirrkura, but there was confusion, and the group fled north again while he returned to the community to alert the others of their meeting. The community members came looking for the group, and quickly realised that they were nine relatives who had been left behind in the desert twenty years earlier.

Finally the community members travelled by vehicle to where the group was last seen, and tracked them for some time before finding them. After making contact and establishing their relationships, the Pintupi nine were invited to come and live at Kiwirrkura, where most of them still reside. Both Walala Tjapaltjarri and Thomas Tjapaltjarri took an interest in the painting movement that was happening around them, and established their names as artists painting the Tingari stories of their ancestral country. Aboriginal art status – Highly regarded artist.

Selected Group Exhibitions

1997     14th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin NT
1998     Tingari-My Dreaming, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
1998     15th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin NT
1998      Tingari, My Dreaming – Three Leading Pintupi Artists, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
1999     Spirit Country, The California Palace of the Legion of Honour, San Francisco US
1999     Painting the Desert, Alliance Francaise de Canberra and the French Embassy. Canberra ACT
1999     Recent Works by Walala Tjapaltjarri and Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London
1999     Tingari Cycle, Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane QLD
1999     16th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin NT
2000     Sand Spinifex & Salt, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2000     Lines’ Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane QLD
2000     My Country – Journeys of our Ancestors’ Ancient Earth, Indigenous Art, Cairns QLD
2000     Walala Tjapatjarri and Dr George Tjapaltjarri, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney NSW
2000     Landmarks Exhibition, Dar Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse, QLD
2000     Fifth National Indigenous Heritage Art Award, Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra ACT
2000- 1 The Art of Place Exhibition, Australian Heritage Commission, National Tour
2000     Songlines: Walala Tjapaltjarri & Dorothy Napangardi , Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London UK
2000     17th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin NT
2000     Melbourne ArtFair 2000, Melbourne VIC
2003     Pintupi – Major Works of the Western Desert, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2004     Travels of the Tingari – New Pintupi Works of the Western Desert, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2011     Tjapaltjarri Brothers, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2013     Landmarks  and Law Grounds: Men of the Desert, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA

Solo Exhibitions

1998     Tingari – Men’s Business, Coo-ee Gallery, Sydney NSW
1998     Walala Tjapaltjarri Paintings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne VIC
1998     Tingari Cycle’ an exhibition of works by Walala Tjapaltjarri, Fire-Works Gallery, Brisbane QLD