7  N.F.S

TJUMPO TJAPANANGKA (born circa 1929)
Acrylic on Belgian linen
180 x 120 cm

This painting tells part of the story of Wati Kutjarra, a prominent dreaming in the
Tanami (Great Sandy Deserts). The Wati Kutjarra were two ancestral brothers who
travelled large areas of the Western Desert teaching ancestral people about food, fire
and housing.

PROVENANCE
Warlayirti Artists, Balgo Hills, Western Australia, painted 2003,
Certificate number 2014/03

Tjumpo is a senior Law Man and also a Maparn (healer). Incredibly fit and strong
for his age, Tjumpo attributes this to his diet of bush food. He speaks adamantly
of his childhood in the desert hunting for goanna, porcupine, wallaby and pussycat
and the construction of spinifex and mud shelters for the wet season. He came to
Balgo as a result of the local priest, Father Alphonse, sending people out into the
bush with supplies of flour, sugar and tea to attract Aboriginal people to the
mission. Shortly afterwards, in 1948, a large group of people from the west, east,
north and south came to live at the old mission at Tjumuntora. Tjumpo began
painting in 1986. He is a highly respected Law Man and is busy with ceremonies
across the entire central desert area during the law season.

REPRESENTED
National Gallery of Victoria
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Robert Holmes à Court Collection
Laverty Collection
Kluge Ruhe Collection, USA