“Illurpa is my grandfather’s country. It is a big rockhole. There are four other smaller rockholes. One my brother was born at, one my sister was born at, one my other brother was born at and one I was born at. The rockhole I was born at is called Kulkutja. It is a long way from Irrunytju, the other side of Tjukurla, near Kintore in NT.”
Tjuruparu was born around 1940 and is a senior Ngaanyatjarra artist. He lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle walking long distances through the desert around Irrunytju, his mother’s country, and the Spinifex plains in the south-west, he father’s country. “My father’s country is Wati Kipara Tjukurpa (Bush Turkey Man Dreaming). Wati Kipara was travelling. He was eating arnguli (wild plums) when he saw (fire). He stole the fire and men chased him all the way to Yurkurla, near Yalata in South Australia, to get the fire back. He ran into the sea holding the fire above his head, but the men followed him into the water and got the waru and threw it everywhere.”
He learnt to survive in the desert, the relationship of country to men’s tjukurpa, law, culture and inma. His father, uncles and the tjilpis taught him to build wiltja (shade structures) and yuu (wind shelters); straighten the thin branches of tacoma bushes over coal to make spears; to carve spears, woomera and shields from sections of mulga trees; and to hunt malu (kangaroos), putji (feral cat), kalaya (emu) and kipara (bush turkey).
When he was a teenager, after his parents died, Tjuruparu travelled with his sisters Tjawina Roberts and Karrika Davidson to Warburton where many anangu had settled around the mission.
Tjuruparu has a strong knowledge of tjukurpa narratives that traverse and intersect across the country. He is a powerful story-teller and his paintings reflect his engagement with the dramas that unfold in the men’s tjukurpa stories. His intense and dramatic use of colour and application of paint has a visceral quality. Theft, rivalry, death, revenge, murder, vendettas, and jealousies are played out across his canvases.
One of the tjukurpa he paints relates to Illurpa, his grandfather’s and brother’s country, near Papulankutja (Blackstone). “When people really want to go out and kill men, they put their spears out like this. They sing inma to make the spears go straight. All the wati kuniya (python men) were getting ready to kill the minyma linga (dragon-lizard women). Women are singing special inma to protect the men. While the women were singing one of the wati kuniya picked up a young fella and put him on his shoulders. He was looking out for fire and smoke, to see where the minima linga was stopping. They went and speared her, Ngaltjara. This is a true danger story from my country, my brother’s country.”
- Writers:
- Knights, Mary
- Date written:
- 2006
- Last updated:
- 2011
