Our collaborators are sprawled far and wide across this sunburnt country, from Bidyadanga’s homegrown heroes, Mary Meribida and Mrs M Baragurra, whose works transmit the intense vibrancy of life on the Kimberly coast, to the remote South Australian community of Kalka, where a diverse group of artists work out of Ninuku Arts on the APY Lands.
From this far-flung map point, Jimmy Donegan, Monica Puntjina and Molly Miller conjure richly layered desertscapes that invite us on a journey across the sprawling contours of their homelands. Complimenting these works are Nyanu Watson’s playful avian portraits that sit in friendly dialogue with the undulating rainbows of Samuel Miller’s waterholes. Rising star Cassaria Young Hogan’s work is strikingly contemporary, chronicling bush trips to her grandfather’s Country in a wild array of neon characters.
Back on the west coast, our collaboration with the inimitable Martumili Artists of the Eastern Pilbara, brings together the work of senior Martu artists Bugai Whyoulter, Minyawe Miller, Jakayu Biljabu, Nancy Nyanjilpayi Chapman, Helen Dale Samson, Muuki and Wokka Taylor, and emerging artist Judith Anya Samson. The collection features a vibrant cluster of striking works from the masters of the contemporary Aboriginal art scene.
Celebrating artists is at the heart of what we do at One of Twelve, and we work hard to foster ongoing partnerships with respected community-owned art centres across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. This ensures that artists are paid fairly for their work, and that our customers receive the highest quality products in return.
We believe that art has the ability to enrich our daily lives while supporting the unique and dynamic cultures of artists and their communities throughout our region. It is a privilege to work with such a talented group of people, and an honour to share their work with you.
Bugai Whyoulter, a Martu woman, was born at Pukayiyirna, north west of Parnpajinya (Newman) in Western Australia. Whyoulter began painting professionally in her late sixties in 2007. Today, she is considered one of Martumili’s most established artists.
Known for bold compositions characterised by rhythmic lines and frenetic dotting, Whyoulter’s work is rendered in a brilliant spectrum ranging from soft pastels through to vibrant hues.
Jakayu Biljabu, a Martu woman, was born circa 1936 near the site of Pitu, east of Well 25 on the Canning Stock Route. She grew up moving between significant sites on Martu Country with her family, occasionally encountering ‘whitefellas’ working along the Canning Stock Route.
During pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) times, Biljabu and her family travelled extensively between water sources, hunting and collecting bush foods along the way. Biljabu’s family retained their traditional lifestyle longer than most pujiman, and Biljabu was married with three children by the time they settled at the Jigalong mission. Biljabu later moved to Punmu where she lives and works today.
Septuagenarian Jimmy Donegan first saw the ocean in 2010 when travelling to Darwin for the 27th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Art Awards.
He returned to the small community of Kalka in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands having won the coveted Telstra art award as well as the general painting category award, the first artist to win both at the same time. Born and raised in remote Western Australia, Donegan laboured as a stockman, craftsman, and senior lawman, and in the 1970s helped organise the outstations movement.
Since beginning to paint in 2000, the artist has become renown nationally and abroad for his rich and vivid compositions of his cultural inheritance. He now paints for Ninuku Arts in the APY Lands of South Australia.
Mary Meribida, the daughter of Rover Thomas’s sister Kupi, was born in Ilyara (Punmu) in Western Australia. The artist’s childhood was spent in the surrounding country, living a nomadic life with her family: “We been walk ‘em, no clothes, nothing. We proper bush people, no English,” she says of her upbringing.
Things changed in the 1970s when severe drought brought her people, the Yulparija people, out of the desert in search of water. They settled in the coastal town of Bidyadanga (formerly La Grange Mission) on the Kimberley coast, where the artist now lives with her husband and fellow artist Donald Moko.
Mrs M Baragurra was born in Kalpirti in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia. Her upbringing was spent travelling across the desert region, from waterholes to seasonal wetlands. In the 1970s a sustained drought forced her people, the Yulparija, to leave their traditional country and settle in the coastal town of Bidyadanga on the Kimberley coast (formerly La Grange Mission), some 250 kilometres south of Broome. The artist began painting in 2003 and is known for combining traditional designs from the Great Sandy Desert with the vibrant colours of the Kimberley.
Born in the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) days, Martu man Minyawe Miller grew up travelling across the Country around Punmu with his family. As a young man, Miller walked across great stretches of this Country carrying only his tajitaji (smouldering stick) and jurna (hunting stick). Travelling between water sources, Miller and his family hunted and collected bush foods such as warmula (bush tomatoes), emu and marlu (kangaroo) as they went.
Nyanu Watson grew up at Pukatja (Ernabella) in north-west South Australia, and witnessed the changes brought about when the missionaries arrived in 1937. In the early 1970s, Watson left the mission for Kalka during the Homelands movement, when the peoples from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in South Australia’s north-west border region returned to their country.
The artist is now a prominent member of the Kalka Community, and is well known for her unique depictions of local wildlife – especially the Ngintaka (Lizard), Anumara (Caterpillar), and Kakalyalya (Cockatoo) – along with her involvement in the collaborative efforts of the renowned Tjanpi Desert Weavers.
A Pipalytjara elder, Monica Putjina Watson was born in or around 1940 at the rockhole Pukara in Western Australia, an important site for the water snake Tjukurpa (dreaming story). She left her birthplace with her family as a young girl and worked for a time in the crafts room at Ernabella Arts in Pukatja, South Australia. It was not until the homelands movement of the late 1970s, that the artist finally returned home with her husband and children.
Monica now paints with Ninuku Arts and is known for her use of bright colours, especially yellow, and dynamic compositions. Her art is included in several national collections.
Muuki Taylor is a senior Martu man, born circa 1945 at Wayinkurungu, a soak on the fringe of the Percival Lakes amid the Great Sandy Desert. Taylor grew up during pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) times, part of a large family – his father having three wives. Together, they walked across the vast expanse of the Great Sandy Desert, frequenting sites around Parnngurr, Punmu and the Kiriwirri area of the Percival Lakes.
Born circa 1941, Nancy Nyanjilpayi Chapman and her sisters, Martu women and fellow senior artists Mulyatingki Marney, May Chapman and Marjorie Yates (dec.), walked across their Country between the communities of Punmu and Kunawarritji. As young girls, the sisters were left to survive alone in the desert after both their parents died. The sisters continued their pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) existence for many years, hunting and living off the land.
Wokka Taylor, a Martu man, was born circa 1939 in the far north of the Martu homelands near Kulyakartu. During pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling times) times, Taylor and his family travelled to Kulyakartu in the wet season. During the dry season they travelled south to the Percival Lakes region, camping at its numerous waterholes along the way.
Helen Dale Samson is a Martu woman, born circa 1943 at Jigalong mission. The mission was originally established as a support store for workers constructing the Rabbit-Proof Fence. This iconic landmark gained international renown following Phillip Noyce’s film adaptation of Doris Pilkington Garimara’s book, Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence.
