Origins Of The Western Desert Aboriginal Art Movement

Australian aboriginal art is not a new thing, aboriginals have painted in caves, drawn in the sand and carved in wood for tens of thousands of years.

One of the oldest found rock art painting is a 17,300-year-old kangaroo found in Western Australia’s Kimberley region.

Papunya a small aboriginal community in the NT, was the origin of the art we know today as the Western Desert Movement.

250km west of Alice Springs, Papunya is an aboriginal community where the western desert art movement was formed

250km west of Alice Springs, Papunya already had Aboriginal People in the town since the 1930s and in the 1950s the Australian Government built a water bore & some basic housing for the increasing population in Papunya as many aboriginal groups were being moved there to make way for cattle farms.

In the late 1960s, the Australian Government moved more aboriginal groups living in the western desert to Papunya to clear land for cattle and to assimilate them with western culture, increasing the population in the early 1970s to over 1,000 people.

The catalyst for the Western Desert Art movement was when a young Geoffrey Bardon took up a posting in Papunya in 1971 as a schoolteacher.

There Geoffrey and his assistant and interpreter Obed Raggett encouraged the children to paint a mural using the traditional style of body and sand ceremonial art, drawing what he saw on a chalkboard to try and get the children to paint murals on the wall of the school.

Elders of the community felt after seeing what the children were doing that the subject matter was more suited to adults. These Pintupi elders approached Bardon who were eager to revitalise their own painting traditions.

The Honey Ant Dreaming

Kaapa Tjampitjinpa with the assistance of Billy Stockman and Long Jack Tjakamarra created a mural Honey Ant Dreaming on a blank wall on the school.

The mural at Papunya being the centre of honey ant dreaming where the songlines converged, was revisited several times with certain symbols changed to retain their secrecy.

Throughout this time Geoffrey meticulously recorded and photographed the paintings and experiences he had during the time he was in Papunya

While the mural was there it proved to be a very influential mural, leading other men to paint smaller paintings of their Jukurrpa (Ancestral stories), on tin cans, matchboxes & many other different objects.

These early Papunya works on canvas were almost entirely Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) paintings.

Papunya Artist Co-operative’s

During this time in 1971, the Papunya School Painters Co-operative was formed, and in 1972 it was absorbed into the Papunya council and re-named.

In June 1971 a new company was set up for the artist, and named “Papunya Tula”, Papunya Tula was named after a small hill near Papunya, which is a Honey Ant Dreaming site shared equally by all traditional groups in central Australia.

Papunya Tula Artists was incorporated as a company with 11 original shareholders in November 1971. In the beginning, it originally consisted entirely of Aboriginal Men.

The style of painting these men used was spiritually rooted and had strict protocols as to what was allowed to be shown to the public, and as their work gained popularity they omitted, changed, over dotted or obscured their paintings to protect their sacred heritage.

In 1974 unfortunately the mural honey ant dreaming was painted over by a maintenance worker because of the criticism by the government towards what Bardon was doing in Papunya. Many people back then and today see this as a great travisty.

However, in the early 1970’s when the Whitlam Government was elected, a new policy of Self Determination for Aboriginal people was put in place which had sweeping changes in the governance of Aboriginal Settlements.

The Whitlam Government as well also supported land rights so western desert groups could move back to their homelands.

So who were the artists who painted the honey ant dreaming?

Kaapa Tjampitjinpa

Born West of Napperby Station in the 1920’s on the Emu Dreaming site of Yaltjijira, son of Kwalapa Tjangala a senior Aboriginal man who was responsible for the ritual site known as Warlugulong.

Working as a stockman at Haasts Bluff as a young man, and eventually moving Papunya in 1957 whilst it was still under construction. Kappa already an established artist, sold his wooden artifacts and watercolours to support his family.

In his formative years illustrating elements of Anmatyerr ceremony in figurative detail which became the focus of his works painting in the men’s painting room.

Kappa went on to create the mural Honey Ant Dreaming in August 1971, along with other Aboriginal Artists, and in September that year he won the Caltex Art Award. He became the inaugural chairman in 1972 of the Papunya Tula Artists.

Described as a troublemaker, “cattle duffer and grog runner” but very charismatic and smart, his frankness, was too much for most settlement officials.

Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri

Born at Ilpitirri near Mt Dennison c. 1927, an infant survivor of the 1928 Coniston Massacre, according to Vivien Johnson “I was a little one in a coolamon. My mother put me under a bush… They killed my mother.”

Rescued and raised by Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri's parents Billy Stockman grew up on Napperby Station working as a stockman

Rescued and raised by Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri’s parents. Billy grew up on Napperby Station working as a stockman, like Kappa he also moved to Haasts Bluff around 1955 and eventually to Papunya.

Like Kappa, Billy was a woodcarver, becoming a leading figure in the early years of the Papunya Tula art movement participating in the mural Honey Ant Dreaming.

Billy, one of the most enthusiastic painters in the men’s painting room, was one of the first to paint large scale canvases.

Serving as chairman of Papunya Tula Artists from 1976–1977, a member of the Aboriginal Artist Board of the Australian council from 1975-1979, travelling to New York in 1988 for the opening of Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia.

And with Michael Nelson Jagamarra, created a sand painting as part of that exhibition.

Long Jack Tjakamarra

Born in Kalipinypa, a major water-dreaming place, northeast of Walungurru. Long Jack Moved to Haasts Bluff as a teenager where he worked as a timber cutter and a stockman.

He stayed in the area till 1959, and then in 1962 moved to Papunya initially as a gardener and groundsman.

As a councillor, working near the school, Long Jack was one of the founding members of the Papunya Tula art movement, working alongside Billy Stockman who was also a school yardman.

Collaborating with Kaapa Tjampitjinpa and Billy Stockman they created the Honey Ant Dreaming, Long Jack previously painting smaller artworks Widows’ Dreaming and a Wallaby Dreaming on the school walls.

Long Jack won the Northern Territory Golden Jubilee Art Award in 1983 and in 1984 won the Caltex Art Award.

_{Photo: “Possum Dreaming” By Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra}

He also served as chairman of Papunya Tula Artists in the early 1990s.

In Closing…

While this article is in no way even close to a comprehensive post on the very rich history of aboriginal art in the western desert, hopefully with information in this post and the wealth of further reading below, you can come away from this article knowing more about the western desert art movement, the people at the core of it and the mural that quite possibly changed it all.

All these people and events helping to open up Western Desert Art to Australians and across the globe where people marvel at the beauty of these works of art, on the walls of the most prestigious art galleries and museums.