Australian Aboriginal artists

Aboriginal painters

• Albert Namatjira was born as Elea in the desert in Arrernte country, Central Australia, in 1902. Two years later he was baptised Albert. Thirty one years after that, at his first solo exhibition of watercolour landscapes, he signed his work with his father's surname for the first time: Albert Namatjira. At the height of his fame, Albert Namatjira's shows sold out within minutes. He supported over six hundred members of his community, lost two of his ten children to malnutrition, was forbidden to own land, imprisoned for having a drink with his friends, and died a broken man.
• Alick Tipoti is from Badu Island in the Torres Strait.
• Bronwyn Bancroft has illustrated more than 20 children's books receiving numerous awards. Her career spans three decades, and she was invited as the first Australian fashion designer to exhibit in Paris in 1987 [1].

  Non-Aboriginal kids need to get a perspective on pre-colonisation and post-contact. They can through art, and the kids love it. —Bronwyn Bancroft, Aboriginal artist and illustrator [2]

• Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri
• Danie Mellor is a controversial artist from Canberra because "neither he nor his art look Aboriginal" [3] (he has white skin and red hair). He was described as "one of the leading contemporary artists of his generation" [3].
• David Malangi Daymirringu, whose work appeared on Australia's one dollar note (now no longer in use).
• Dickie Minyintiri was born in about 1915. He's a Ngangkari (traditional healer) and senior law man. In 2011 he won the Telstra Award for his artwork 'Euro Tracks'. Minyintiri began painting in 2005.
• Emily Kame Kngwarray
• Ginger Riley Munduwalawala He paints no sun or moon because he doesn't have the rights to those stories.
• Joe Aliminidjin Rootsey was one of the first Indigenous people in Queensland to be recognised as a contemporary artist in the 1950s. He was then promoted as the 'second Namatjira'. In 1958 the Wuriingu man took classes at an art school. Joe died 1963 aged only 45 from tuberculosis [4].
• John Mawurndjul
• Judy Watson was born in Mundubbera and from the Waanyi people from north-west Queensland.
• Karla Dickens has been an artist for 20 years, and created Madonna paintings.
• Kutuwulumi Purawarrumpatu (Kitty Kantilla)
• Munggurrawuy Yunupingu
• Paddy Bedford (1922-2010) is a Gija Elder from the Warmun region of the north-east Kimberley. He is recognised for his sparse paintings of country, Dreaming stories and the dark spects of the Kimberley history.
• Philip Gudthaykudthay. Often known as 'Pussycat', after his totem of the Australian native cat, Burruwara, Philip Gudthaykudthay has spent most of his life around Ramingining, Central Arnhem Land, where he was born. In 1983, he became the first Aboriginal artist to have a solo exhibition at a contemporary art gallery in Sydney.
• Richard Idagi comes from the Torres Strait Islands.
• Ronnie Tjampitjinpa
• Rover Thomas
• Rusty Peters
• Sonia Kurrara from the Walmajarri tribe, Western Australia. She grew up at Yungngora (Noonkanbah), an area she constantly reproduces, painting rivers, rocks and pandanus palms.
• Wakartu Cory Sunrise was born in the Great Sandy Desert, Western Australia, around 1929. She first started painting in the early 1980s. "Painting was how I told my story to kartiya [white people]," she says [5].
• Wamud Namok is believed to be the last Aboriginal artist to have painted works on the rock walls of western Arnhem Land. His early work, with its intricate x-ray style, can still be found in sandstone shelters today. Namok died in 2009 aged 83 [8].
• Wentja Napaltjarri is said to be one of Australia's top collectable artists.
• Yannima Pikarli Tommy Watson is a Pitjantjatjara artist painting huge canvasses in bold, vibrant colours. One of his paintings fetched $240,000, the highest amount paid for a living Aboriginal artist. He began painting in 2001 aged 66.

Art is not about pleasing others' aspirations. To me, it's an exploration and teasing out of ideas, cultures, feelings and the unknown.—Brook Andrew, Aboriginal painter [6]

When I paint, I think about my country and where I have been travelling across that country… I think about my people, the old people and what they told me and jumangkarni [Dreaming]. When I paint I am thinking about law from a long time ago. —Wkartu Cory Sunrise, Aboriginal painter [5]

Aboriginal photographers

• Brenda L Croft
• Brook Andrew
• Christian Bumbarra Thompson
• Darren Siwes
• Dianne Jones lives in Melbourne, but was raised in Northam and Perth. Daughter to a shearer and painter, she enjoys being provocative in her photography.

  There are a lot of sad and tough stories in our history, but these aren't the only stories I want to tell. —Dianne Jones, Aboriginal photographyer [6]

• Merv Bishop started out as a black-and-white news photographer. He also worked for the Sydney Morning Herald. One of his most famous shots is when Prime Minister Gough Whitlam poured soil into the hands of traditional owner Vincent Lingiari in 1975.
• Gary Lee
• Genevieve Grieves is an Aboriginal photographer from the Wrimi nation in the mid north coast of New South Wales. She studied cinematography at the University of Technology Sydney and worked on the SBS series First Australians.
• Michael Aird
• Michael Riley
• Peter McKenzie was born in Sydney's suburb La Perouse and did a PhD at the University of New England.
• Richard Bell was born in Charleville (700km west of Brisbane) and now lives in Brisbane.
• Ricky Maynard is a self-taught Aboriginal documentary photographyer from Launceston, Tasmania. He came to prominence in the late 1980s with a photographic essay about Aboriginal muttonbird farmers.
• Tony Albert
• Vernon Ah Kee hails from far north Queensland and now lives in Brisbane. He has exhibited widely overseas.
• Wayne Quilliam. Wayne Quilliam Photography is the premier Indigenous photographic company in Australia. With one of the largest privately Aboriginal owned photographic libraries it provides a culturally sensitive and appropriate service. Website: www.waynequilliamphotography.com.au

Aboriginal writers

Black Words is an online database allowing you to research Aboriginal writers and their works. It contains more than half a million reocords including biographical entries.

You have to log in to search. Use username bw and password guest: www.austlit.edu.au/BlackWords.

[1] 'Time is right for Bancroft', Koori Mail 476 p.53 [2] 'A work in progress', Koori Mail 497 p.21 [3] 'A far cry from dot paintings', Sun Herald 1/8/2010 [4] 'Gallery promotes 'other Namatjira'', Koori Mail 481 p.33 [5] 'Finalists named', Koori Mail 475 p.51 [6] 'In conversation with Brook Andrew', Arts Yarn Up, Summer 2008 p.5 [7] 'Captured in show', Koori Mail 500 p.46 [8] 'Art master lived for his country', Koori Mail 462 p.3