George Tjungurrayi

Painted in 1977 for Papunya Tula Arts Centre, Alice Springs

Realities Gallery, Melbourne

Estate of Eve Norton McGlashan, acquired from the above

Hetti Perkins and Hannah Fink (eds), Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, Sydney, 2000, p.238 (illustrated; showing the painting being exhibited by Papunya Tula Artists at the Alice Springs Show in May 1977)

Like other Pintupi people, Wilyirinya 'George' Tjungurrayi spent his youth in the remote western regions of Central Australia, out of contact with the rest of the world. This changed radically when in the late 1950s he walked into Mount Doreen cattle station, on the eastern edge of the Western Desert.¹

Why he and so many other Pintupi left their country is the subject of considerable debate. Access to permanent supplies food and water - especially during prolonged droughts - played a part. Diminishing availability of marriage partners was another factor. Sometimes, it was sheer curiosity.² Whatever the case, after leaving Mount Doreen in 1960, George made his way to Papunya. Although he seems to have enjoyed this new world, he retained a memento of his former life: his wild, curly hair. So impressive was his afro-style bouffant that he was nicked-named 'Hairbrush', an appellation that has stuck throughout his impressive artistic career.

Two years after arriving at Papunya, George joined Patrol Officer, Jeremy Long, on an expedition to the far west. They planned to contact the Pintupi still living in and around George's homeland, Walawala, in Western Australia. A number of people were eventually found, including some of George's relatives.³ All but a few wished to be taken into Papunya. However, Long was not in favour of moving people into an already over-crowed settlement. He proposed in a report that bores, equipped with water tanks, be established in Pintupi country so they could remain in their homelands if they wished. Nonetheless, on this occasion, Long acquiesced and some Pintupi were given a ride back to Papunya where George helped them to adjust.

Despite the strictures of settlement life, George continued to acquire ceremonial knowledge about his ancestorial lands long after he had moved to Papunya. As anthropologist Fred Myers has noted, extensive ceremonies associated with the Tingari Men were performed at one of Papunya's outstations, Yayayi, in 1974.⁴ It seems certain that George attended these ceremonies. Indeed, when he began to paint for Papunya Tula in 1976, it was the depiction of the Tingari on which he mostly focused.

According to tradition, the Tingari were a group of mythological men who criss-crossed the Western Desert, performing ceremonies, instructing novices and engaging in a multiplicity of exploits. As they did so, they not only laid-down correct procedures for the enactment of sacred rituals, they also created much of the topographical features of this vast region, including George's ancestorial country encompassing Tjulyantjangka, Wilkinkarra, Karrku, Kiwirrkurra and other significant sites. In representing these sites and the activities of the Tingari in his painting, George reiterated his close attachment to his homeland and perhaps reflected a sense of nostalgia for a way of life that had long passed.

His painting, Numinya, depicted here, must be considered next to the best works George created concerning the Tingari. Among one of the earliest Papunya Tula works on stretched canvas, Numinya featured in a now famous exhibition at the Alice Springs Show in 1977. Associated with a Women's and Kamperrapa (wild tomato) site located in George's homelands, the painting also intersects in complex ways with sites relating to the Tingari men. Although the secret-sacred aspects of this work cannot be revealed, it can nonetheless be said that the roundel in the top left hand corner represents a sacred cave and the three remaining, women's camps. The fine, beautifully executed concentric circles in this work possess a visual power all of their own. From an historical point of view, they also pre-figure George's later minimalist painting that employ a multiplicity of vibrant parallel lines, reminiscent of the vast parallel sandhills that cut across his homelands.  

Dr. Philip Batty

Philip Batty lived at Papunya between 1977 and 1979, befriending many local artists. He co-founded the first Aboriginal broadcasting services in Australia in 1980 (CAAMA) and was appointed Director of the National Aboriginal Cultural Institute (Tandanya) in 1991. He was Senior Curator of the Central Australian Indigenous collection at Melbourne Museum up to 2018. He has a PhD in anthropology.       

References:

¹ Johnson, Vivian. 2008. George Tjungurrayi in Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists, 14-142, Alice Springs, IAD Press.

² See exhibition catalogue, Colliding Worlds, First Contact in the Western Desert 1932-1984. Batty, Philip 2006. Museum Victoria.

³ See Long, Jeremy. 1964 The Pintupi Patrols: Welfare Work with the Desert Aborigines, In Australian Territories 4 (5) 43-48.

⁴ Myers, Fred. 2002, Painting Culture, The Making of an Aboriginal High Art, Duke University Press, 97-98.

Image Credits

Photograph of work being exhibited at The Alice Springs Show, 1977