Tingari Cycle by Walala Tjapltjarri
| Artist: | Walala Tjapltjarri |
| Title: | Tingari Cycle |
| Medium: | Acrylic on canvas |
| Size: | 122 X 79cm |
| Code: | 0187 |
WALALA TJAPALTARRI
Walala Tjapaltjarri was born in the Gibson Desert in the early 1960's and is a member of the lost Pintupi tribe who lived in the desert. The sensation in October 1984 was that Walala and 8 other members of his tribe walked out of the desert from the 'Stone Age' into the 20th century.
While all the other Aboriginals in the area were being settled on government stations further east, their small family group escaped the net. They continued to live the traditional aboriginal life of nomadic hunters and gatherers. Travelling along the ancient 'songlines' within their harsh but beautiful environment, performing the time-honoured rituals and ceremonies of their culture, they had no contact with the modern world of 'white' twentieth-century Australia until 1984.
It was then that they were 'found' by a party from a recently re-settled aboriginal outstation at Kiwirrkuru. The discovery created international headlines. It also created a new life for the wandering 'tribe'. They moved to Kiwirrkuru, the tiny settlement of some hundred and eighty people, regarded as 'the most isolated town in Australia'.
In 1997, encouraged by his brother Warlimpirrnga (well known painter) he began to paint in a minimalist style reminiscent of engravings on weapons, sand paintings and ritual body painting. Walala Tjapaltjarri depicts in his works the Tingari Cycle, a series of sacred and secret mythological ceremonies describing the epic journeys of Ancestors in the Tjukurrpa (Dreamtime).
Digital Finery.