“Milyarn waterhole got a big mob of trees all around, we call them parrkaparrka (Desert Oak), good for shade and honey this one” (edible nectar from flowers). “This one got Jilji “(sandhills) all around represented by the four ovoid shapes in corners.
Name: MAYAPU ELSIE THOMAS
Language: Wangkajunga
Biography:
Myapu was a painter and storyteller. She painted about waterholes and hunting and gathering. However, quite often when telling the stories of the painting she would relate a dreamtime story or a speci?c event that occurred at these places.
Myapu was born at Pinga Waterhole in the Great Sandy Desert around 1940. Her family left the country of Myapu’s birth and moved to Thomas Springs where they joined other families who were moving towards the cattle stations of the Fitzroy valley.
Many desert families camped at Thomas Springs but they encountered new diseases there which killed many of the older people and children. Myapu’s father, who had three wives, was killed when police came and chained up several people and took them to Fitzroy Crossing. A large group of children then moved onto Christmas Creek station, to join other Wangkajunga groups who had settled there. Myapu moved there with her grandfather and worked there. Later, her own family grew up in the same community.
Myapu’s paintings have been exhibited internationally and throughout Australia. She also carved coolamons and other artefacts and made woven baskets from spinifex grass and coloured wool.
PAINTING THEMES:
Hunting and gathering
Nunyuti, Nunewdi, Pinga yirnta [waterhole], Maanypa Great Sandy Desert Kumpu, Natawalu – well 40, Ngayipi, Kurrkumalu, Canning Stock Route Marnpa jila [permanent waterhole]
Payarl jiwari [rockhole]
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2012 | Mangkaja Arts 21 Year Anniversary Wirrinyiya ngaragngarag birra ngamoo ngamoo | Tandanya, Adelaide, SA |
2011 | Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair | DAAF, Darwin |
2009 | Mangkaja Artists 60x60 | Randell Lane Fine Art, WA |
2009 | Sharing Difference on Common Ground | Holmes a Court Gallery, Perth, WA and Kimberley Aboriginal Artists |
2009 | Shalom Gamarada | Caspary Conference Centre, University of NSW |
2009 | Senior Artists from Fitzroy Crossing | Suzanne O’Connell Gallery, Brisbane, QLD |
2009 | Mangkaja Survey Show | Short St Gallery, Broome, WA |
2009 | Emerging and Re-emerging | Outstation, Darwin, NT |
2008 | Bendi Lango | The Indigenous Scholarship Fund, Sydney and Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane, QLD |
2008 | Mangkaja Arts | A P Bond Art Dealer, Adelaide, SA |
2008 | Marnintu Maparnana [Women Painting] | ReDot Gallery, Singapore |
2008 | Through Our Eyes – The Canning Stock Route Project | Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery, WA |
2008 | The Canning Stock Route Project | Beijing International Olympic Committee Expo,China |
2008 | Mangkaja Arts | A P Bond Art Dealer, Adelaide, SA |
2008 | Divas of the Desert | Gallery Gondwana, Sydney, NSW |
2008 | Shalom Gamarada | Caspary Conference Centre, University of NSW |
2007 | Bendi Lango | The Indigenous Scholarship Fund, Sydney and Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane, QLD |
2004/05 | Colour Power: Aboriginal Art Post 1984 | National Gallery of Victoria Perth International Arts Festival, WA |
2005 | Wangkatjungka | Short St Gallery, Broome, WA |
2004 | Ngurrara Canvas | Perth Concert Hall, Perth International Arts Festival, WA |
2002 | Wangkatjungka | Short St Gallery, Broome, WA |
| Ngurrara Canvas | National Gallery of Australia, ACT |
| Ngurrara | Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA |
PUBLIC ART:
2009 | Fitzroy Crossing Swimming Pool |
2008 | Fitzroy Valley Education Centre – panels project |
2008 | Fitzroy Crossing Hospital - paintings on canvas |
COLLECTIONS:
National Gallery of Victoria National Museum of Australia Fitzroy Crossing High School Fitzroy Crossing Hospital
PUBLICATIONS:
2009 | FORM and the National Museum of Australia Canning Stock Route Project: Ngurra Kuju Walyja [One Country One People] |
2008 | Exhibition catalogue Through Our Eyes: The Canning Stock Route Project |
2007 | FORM and the National Museum of Australia The Canning Stock Route Project |
2004 | National Gallery of Victoria Colour Power: Aboriginal art post 1984 |
2000 | Oxford University Press & ANU Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture - Ngurrara Entry |
Jurnta (Bush Onion) JURNTA that we digem up from the ground sometime we eat it raw or sometime we throw in the coals
Bush Onion (Jurnta) This country Booloowatu. My community grows bush onions. During the dry season jurnta goes black. This means they are ripe (cooked) and ready to dig up and cook on the coals. The Read more…
This is a big waterhole. Rain runs into the waterhole. This is good water. My people and my family lives in the desert for many years when rain season comes the waterholes use to be Read more…