TIMMY TIMMS

Jirrawun Aboriginal Arts, Western Australia
William Mora Galleries, Melbourne
Private collection, Melbourne

Gaagembi (Poor Fella), William Mora Galleries, 26 October 2000 - 18 November 2000

There are areas of paint loss to the bottom of the composition board, evident in the image reproduction. The loss is mainly to the black pigments otherwise the work is in good condition.
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Cf. For similar compositions in paintings of the same country see Rover Thomas, Frog Hollow Country, 1987, and Banana Springs, 1986, Thomas, R. with K. Akerman, M. Macha, W. Christensen and W. Caruana, Roads Cross: The paintings of Rover Thomas, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1994, p.13 and p.16 respectively, and again on p.58, illus.; for thematically related paintings see Lulumalulu at Mount House, 1983, and Pompeys Pillar, 1983, in Thomas et al 1997, pp.11, 58, illus

Timmy Timms (Kamaliny Palmentarri) was an inspirational leader and senior lawman of the Gija people in the eastern Kimberley. After a traditional upbringing, he worked on Bow River Station where he became head stockman while continuing his ceremonial responsibilities. The social upheavals of the 1970s saw Timms come to the fore as a leader of his people, holding the Gija community together in the face of physical and cultural dislocation. From the late 1970s he was a member of a number of Indigenous cultural organisations that were formed to protect and promote traditional law and culture, and to encourage Indigenous enterprise. Timms also led public Gija performances; he was a renowned songman and didjeridu player.

Timms took up painting in the public domain in the last months of his life. The reason? 'No one asked me "  wrote Leon Morris in his obituary of the artist in 2001. Timms' first works were tentative, but those shown in the Gaagembi (Poor Fella) exhibition in late 2000  reflect an  authority of traditional knowledge and an assurance of execution that establish him as a Kimberley painter of significance.

This painting is sold with an accompanying certificate that reads: 'This picture shows country north of the Bow River on the eastern side of the Great Northern Highway. It shows a long range of hills called Gernimboowoorrin. On the left up in the long hill is a Dreaming place for bush honey known as 'sugarbag'. In front we see the landmark vertical rock known to Europeans as Pompeys Pillar. This is a Dreaming place for the blue-tongue lizard which belongs to the artist's mother. It is near the place where Major the bushranger camped in the hills for a long time after he had killed two white people. Major was one of very few Aboriginal people who fought the invaders with their own weapon the gun. The more common event was Aboriginal people being killed in large groups by white people. He watched people coming from Wyndham through the gap near Pompey's Pillar and robbed them of stores and ammunition. The artist's mother was one of a small group of men and women who lived with him here. He was eventually tracked and shot by police near Red Butt on Texas Downs. When Major was killed the artist's mother was rescued from the group by her mother and taken to Turkey Creek. Other artists from this area have painted this place in a very different style concentrating on the Pillar itself. In this picture we see the huge rock against its background of hills.'