Walala Tjapaltjarri

Walala Tjapaltjarri

Born:c.1960
Country:Kiwirrkurra-WA
Skin:Tjapaltjarri
Language group:Pintupi

The so-called ‘Last of the Nomads’ or ‘Lost Tribe’ family group of 9 Pintupi ‘came in’ from the Western Desert in 1984. Six of this family group became artists; Warlimpirrnga, Walala and Thomas Tjapaltjarri and Yukulti, Yalti and Takarria Napangati. They had been living a traditional lifestyle west of Lake Mackay (Wilkinkarra) and had not seen white people at close proximity until 1984, although the had seen cars in the distance. Their ‘discovery’ made international headlines as they were the last group of Aboriginal people to have maintained a pre-contact existence into the latter part of the 20th Century.

Walala is the most well known painter of the family. His main imagery is that of the squares of the traditional Tingari men’s stories, and his works display a combination of traditional design and sophisticated abstraction. Hailed by art critic Robert Hughes as a adventurous artist and included in his BBC documentary series Beyond the Fatal Shore (2000), Walala Tjapaltjarri often paints triptychs which depict his inherited dreaming sites dotted along the country west of Lake Mackay, including the salt lake Mina Mina. Depicting the ancestral Tingari men’s initiation rites (malliera) held in the Gibson Desert, his most well known works are characterised by the use of black and white with either red or yellow. One of the most widely travelled of the family, he is a member of Papunya Tula Artists Pty. Ltd. Since he started painting he has also worked directly with a number of galleries throughout Australia.