6  SOLD

BOXER MILNER TJAMPITJIN (born circa 1934)

Acrylic on Belgian linen
150 x 75 cm

This painting depicts the rainbows, or Tjirrwangu Naparlan, which come with the
summer rains. These rains fill the soakwaters, which are shown here at the base of
the rainbows, and along the course of Sturt Creek. The many small arch shapes are
the rainbows, with the water washing through into many small tributaries to fill the
channels of Sturt Creek, or Purkitji. The central cross-design shows the main
channels of Purkitji.

PROVENANCE
Warlayirti Artists, Balgo Hills, Western Australia, painted 2002,
Catalogue Number 554/02

Boxer is a community elder living in Kururrungku Community, which is also known
as Billiluna. He and his two brothers are custodians for the country and all the
stories of the Sturt Creek area. Boxer ’s paintings all depict different physical and
mythological aspects of the middle and upper stretches of Sturt Creek. He often
depicts the flooding of the creek and the changes to the country this brings, both
during the flooding and after the water starts to recede.
The area of Milnga-Milnga is a major flood plain for Sturt Creek and is inundated
every summer after the rains. This is important for all nature, including people,
and the artist’s family who have always lived here, to ‘look after ’ the area by
keeping its associated Law and ceremonies. A significant portrayal of the water in
Boxer ’s paintings of Sturt Creek is white, depicting the ‘milk water ’ that runs after
the rain has fallen in the clay soils upstream of Billiluna.

REPRESENTED
National Gallery of Victoria
Laverty Collection
Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia
Kluge Ruhe Collection, USA