Crossings -- August 2001

Fabian Wishputt Tjangala (l.g. Walmajarri), Warrina 2001, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 90 cm

Warlayirti Artists
at Balgo Hills

Over kilometres of flat Spinifex country with only an occasional rocky outcrop, the 'desert' is remarkably green after recent and exceptional rains. After driving 850km from Alice Springs (or about 300km from Halls Creek in the north), across the corrugated and bone shaking Tanami Road that alternates between red or white dust and muddy quagmire, a small sign appears indicating the way to the Warlayirti Artists Centre. City dwellers have had many hours to contemplate the vast spaces of Central Australia and the significance this land holds for the Aboriginal people. Seeing this vast landscape that is being traversed and knowing that it is criss-crossed with a myriad of creation journeys recorded in songs and stories that inform the lives of the region's Aboriginal people provides a dimension in understanding Aboriginal art that is difficult to fully grasp from the gallery wall. After reaching this little sign, such a long way from city life, a negotiation of a further 35km off the Tanami Road takes the traveller into the community at Balgo Hills (Wirrimanu country), inhabited predominantly by Kukatja and Jaru people. The area is an important location at the intersection of journey-lines of major Creation Beings and the inspirational source for painters of the Warlayirti Artists.

Unlike the cramped little room at the end of an old transportable building of several years ago, Warlayirti Artists, the Aboriginal owned and controlled artist venture of the Balgo Aboriginal community established in 1987, is now housed in a spacious new building near the edge of the community and near the church. The art centre is co-joined with the new cultural centre. In readiness for the cultural centre's official opening on July 21 this year, the area was a buzz of activity.

Warlayirti Artists is already a long established art centre that is well known for the production of vibrant and unique acrylic paintings. Like the proliferation of life in the greening land surrounding this community, activity at the centre is blooming. In preparation for the big opening in July, many cultural artefacts were being produced. On our arrival at the centre, a large group of women and children were sitting on the veranda painting gum nuts. People who do not often paint, and even those who do, or perhaps others who do not enjoy acrylic painting on canvas, have been producing baskets woven with coloured wool and Spinifex grass. Boomerangs, shields and other wooden implements had been appearing, many newly produced and some which were created about fifty years ago. Their recent appearance indicates the importance and interest generated in the new cultural centre. These works are in combination with silk painting produced at the education centre, further demonstrating the devotion to creative activity throughout the community. The cultural centre is a pride for the people, not only as a display of artefacts and history of the Balgo Hills settlement, but a centre of cultural affirmation for all the Aboriginal people of Balgo and outlying communities. The centre is generating new and renewed enthusiasm and relevance for cultural activity.

The 'new' art centre, having been open in its new premises for over 2 years, is also a buzz of activity. First impressions are breath taking. The walls are covered with stretched canvases in a blaze of colour and exquisite representation of the artists' countries. Large tables are covered with piles of painted canvases that range from large 2m paintings to small intimate 'tourist' size pieces. There are also small canvas boards painted, not only by the young inexperienced artists, but also by older established artists like the renowned Helicopter Tjungurrayi. There are many artists represented by these works for sale. A large number are emerging artists and younger people who join the large group of renowned Warlayirti artists like Eubena Nampitjin, Tjumpo Tjapanangka or Bridget Mudgidell. Artists present in the centre at the time of our visit proudly find their paintings and talk about the country represented and their families. It is almost impossible to select a single painting, as the eye is caught by another and yet another elaborate and colourful representation of country and creation stories. The language of these paintings is as difficult for non-Aboriginal people to grasp as it is to elucidate the aesthetic qualities that make these paintings so appealing. Individual artists have styles that separate them from each other and yet retain the Balgo 'style' that is inherent in them all. Here the symbolism of the Dreaming journeys and significant landforms are characteristically formed by the dotted lines that merge into a vibrantly fluid life of their own.

While many artists come frequently to the art centre to paint, many others take stretched, primed canvases and paints and produce the finished artworks in their own camps. Artworks are also collected for Warlayirti Artists from outlying communities like Mulan or nearby Billiluna (about an hour's drive). Artists like Susie Bootja Bootja Napangarti and Ningie Nangala are often in the art centre painting. Sitting on the floor surrounded by paints and cups of tea, the two senior women may produce more than one painting a day or a single larger work over several days. On this day, Bootja has just completed a series of works depicting her Bush Onion. These canvases are filled with tiny coloured dots within dots within dots, in areas of merging colours that dynamically represent various areas of her Bush Onion country. The layered dots representing the Bush Onion surround a black circle that represents a particular waterhole where the women say they sometimes take the Kardiya (white people). Having completed the work with white dots in the centre of each Bush Onion, the painting has a vibrancy reminiscent of the brilliance of the rarrk (cross-hatching) that infers power in Eastern Arnhem Land painting in Australia's far north. This done, Susie Bootja Bootja Napangarti's painting is finished and put aside. Another is begun, this time beginning with bold coloured stripes across the canvas, an energetic contrast to the intricate and delicate Bush Onion. Much of the aesthetic appeal of Aboriginal art seems to emerge from this spontaneous application of paint on a blank canvas.

Susie Bootja Bootja Napangarti with
Bush Onion at Warlayirti Artists

Ningie Nangala painting at
Warlayirti Artists

Erica Izett, one of the co-ordinators employed by Warlayirti Artists, relates that she has noticed, not only an increase in the quantity and interest in the production of paintings for the centre, but an aesthetic enrichment inspired by the activities associated with the developing cultural centre. There is a cultural revival that is inspiring careful and profound representations of creation designs. One example of this is Fabian Wishputt Tjangala's painting of Warrina (illustrated), part of the Blue Tongue Dreaming, an important story for the artist. Tjangala is the elder 'owner/custodian' with George Parraku of country around Lake Gregory, which lies to the west of Balgo. Although he has been painting in acrylics for some time, this newly inspired work demonstrates an exceptional quality and reverence to his cultural life. The intensified cultural activity at Balgo is strengthening, not the spiritual, cultural and environmental connections with the earth and its creation, for they are the essence of Aboriginal existence, but the artworks themselves. The fervour created by the public affirmation of those beliefs is being imbued into the created artworks.

Community members were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the well travelled Ngurrara canvas that was being brought back for the opening of the cultural centre in July. This huge painting measures ten metres by eight metres. Many Balgo artists are connected to the country depicted in this significant canvas that was painted with Walmajarri, Wangkajunga, Mangala and Martuwangka people to represent their lands and the relationships between them. The dancing on this canvas that took place during the debate of Amendments to the Native Title Act in 1997, and in particular the Ngurrara Native Title Claim, was to be repeated at the opening of the cultural centre as big mobs of people converged on Balgo for this significant cultural event.

The grand opening of the cultural centre is not a closure but a symbol of renewed cultural activity. Painting will continue with enthusiasm and with a new glass workshop beginning at the art centre, a new dimension of creative activity is just beginning. The Australian art world will see exciting works emerge from Warlayirti Artists in the months and years ahead, cementing their reputation for fine artistic creation.

Maggie Fletcher
Collection Manager, Flinders University Art Museum
Postgraduate student, Australian Studies, Flinders University

Thanks to the co-ordinators Tim and Erica, of Warlayirti Artists, for permission to publish this article.

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