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WALPIRI DRAWINGS
Collected by Mervyn Meggitt
In 1953-54 the anthropologist Mervyn Meggitt
conducted research with Warlpiri people in and
around the Hooker Creek (Lajamanu) settlement
of north-central Australia. Fifty years on, the
ethnographic writing resulting from this work,
Desert People, continues to be regarded
as something of an anthropological classic. Meggitt
was a meticulous researcher whose keen interest
in Warlpiri ceremonial life lead him to record
in detail the complex interlinkages of Warlpiri
kinship and cosmology, the inalienable relationships
of groups of persons with specific tracts of country
through Jukurrpa, the law. Providing coloured
wax crayons and soft card, Meggitt encouraged
his (predominantly male) Warlpiri interlocutors
to put down on paper some of the symbolism of
their ceremonial knowledge to illustrate points
in ancestral narratives. A small number of men,
clearly taken by the process and medium of expression,
transcended the utilitarian brief and, in Meggitt's
observation, 'went on drawing for the pleasure
of drawing'. The result of this activity is a
collection of 169 drawings produced by 21 men
and three women over the period Meggitt lived
at Hooker Creek, which he donated to AIATSIS in
the 1970s.
The drawings cover diverse theme. About a third
depict symbolism associated with Warlpiri initiation
rites. These can only be viewed by men and none
are included in the exhibition. The rest of the
drawings range from those that illustrate less
sensitive aspects of cosmological knowledge, through
to a series that Meggitt describes as being 'far
removed from totemic drawing'. Some provide fascinating
insights into Warlpiri conceptions of early settlement
life. Meggitt described drawing 63 as 'impressionism
of a high order'. Resembling an aerial view of
vivid green rice fields marked out with black
borders, it is in fact Larry Jungarrayi Spencer's
interpretation of the Hooker Creek superintendents's
house. Jungarrayi told Meggitt the most striking
thing about the house was the flywire that screened
it; in his depiction the flywire comes to stand
for the house itself. Another, drawing 149 by
Willy Japangardi, depicts a black house floating
in space, with a deep blue sky separating its
foundations from a yellow spinifex ground, evoking
a widespread sensibility among older Warlpiri
people that a key marker of difference between
themselves and Europeans is that while Warlpiri
live on the ground, Europeans live above it.
Meggitt's own observation of the significance
of these drawings is of interest. In the tape-recorded
interview conducted by Peter Hamilton in 1963,
Meggitt discusses them not as ethnographic curiosities,
as was customary in this period, but from within
the discourse of western art aesthetics. He singles
out two men, Larry Jungarrayi Spencer and Abie
Jangala as 'true artists'. Over time they explored
'all phases of world art history from representationalism
through impressionism until finally (developing)
and abstract (technique)'. Incredibly, perhaps,
both Jungarrayi and Jangala went on to become
internationally renowned artists. But this formative
stage of their development has not been documented.
Jungarrayi was one of five senior Warlpiri men
who painted the Yuendumu school doors in 1983-84,
an event widely associated with the birth of the
Yuendumu art movement. Abie Jangala was the first
Lajamanu-based Warlpiri artist to have had solo
exhibitions and something of a 'steady career'.
Both artists' works are also included in the collections
of major public art institutions.
The existence of these drawings contradicts a
misconception commonly invoked in mainstream art
history, that the Central Desert art movement
spontaneously emerged at Papunya from 1971. Created
two decades before the first Papunya boards, the
Warlpiri drawings mark the carrying of ancient
artistic expression into a new medium. They symbolise
an important instance of cross-cultural exchange,
a point of mediation between an anthropologist
and the people with whom he worked. And in transcending
the simple utilitarian purpose of their production,
the Warlpiri drawings provide an intimate view
of the richly creative processes lodged at the
heart of Warlpiri belief and practice.
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