A Warlpiri speaker, Willie Japanangka’s country is Mt Theo (Purturlu). He and all his relatives live in Willowra. He says he began painting on weapons e.g. boomerangs, and when painting materials were made available in Willowra in the late ’80s through a community adviser, took up the enterprise along with many other men and women at Willowra. He is self-taught: I taught to do painting myself, because I remembered about my dreamings. Like Johnny Japaljarri, the artist did paintings for the children at Willowra School to learn about their Dreamings: I did one painting about my country which I put on the wall in the school. I also did a painting which I sold to the Art Gallery. But now I still paint and sell to people that are interested in buying my painting.
The artist’s nephew, Malcolm Jakamarra, remembers him painting on canvas in 1981, one of the first to do so in the Willowra community. However, Willie Reilly’s involvement with the art movement can be dated back another decade to 1972 when a painting bearing the name William Reilly Jabanunga was sold by Papunya Tula Artists. The painting is now in the Kelton Foundation collection. In 1980, paintings by William Reilly could be found in several Alice Springs art galleries. There seems little doubt that this artist is one of those individuals who acted as a catalyst for the spread of the painting movement across the Western Desert, specifically to Willowra.
- Writers:
- Johnson, Vivien
- Date written:
- 1994
- Last updated:
- 2011
