Walala Tjapaltjarri

In late 1984, Walala and eight other relatives of the Pintupi Tribe walked out of the desert in Western Australia and made contact for the first time with European society. Described as 'The Lost Tribe', he and his family created international headlines. Until this time Walala and his family lived the traditional and nomadic life of a hunter-gatherer society. Their intimate knowledge of the land, its flora and fauna and waterholes allowed them to survive, as their ancestors had for thousands of years. It is this sacred landscape with its significant sites that Walala so strikingly describes in his paintings.

Walala Tjapaltjarri was first introduced to painting by his brother Warlimpirrnga, also a painter of international acclaim. Walala's first paintings were in the classical Tingari style, a series of sacred and secret mythological songs which is associated with his Dreaming sites. In 1996 he developed his own style of work. He began abstracting the classical Pintupi designs, creating a highly graphic language to speak of his country and ceremonial sites. The rectangles so prominent in his paintings form both a physical and spiritual map.

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Tingari Dreaming

The group of ancestral spirit beings known as the Tingari brought law and culture to the people of the Western Desert. Their journeys, important sites and activities cover a huge area stretching from Pintupi country around the Papunya region 250 kilometres west of Alice Springs southwest to the Great Sandy and Tanami deserts around Balgo Hills, and their depictions are numerous in Western Desert art.

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