Tiwi layout v2 ch 16 Munupi.pdf

S EctIoN V 

MELVILLE 

ISLAND 

Art 

cENtrES 

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16 

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CHAPTE R 16 

PirlangimPi: 

munuPi arts 

& Crafts 

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chapte r 16 / pi r lang i m pi: m u n u pi arts & crafts 

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Pulurumpi or Pirlangimpi, formerly called 

Garden Point, is situated near the northwestern 

corner of Melville Island, on the 

shore along Apsley Strait. 1 It is now the home of the 

thriving art centre Munupi Arts and Crafts. The centre 

developed as an amalgamation of a women’s craft and 

printing centre and the second pottery established 

by Eddie Puruntatameri on Melville Island when he 

transferred there in 1984 (see page xxx). Munupi 

has developed into a distinctive Tiwi art centre with 

a unique history and style of painting, traditional 

carving, occasional print-making, and a small but 

historically famous pottery. The artists, who 

are mostly women due to the history of the 

activities, paint together in a large tin shed 

adorned with vibrantly painted murals. 

Usually music plays, a few small children 

coyly watch or play under the tables, 

and coffee is always available. Touring 

boats come and go, bringing welcome 

sales to the tiny but busy gallery. 

In 1980 the Sisters of St Joseph of 

California moved to Pirlangimpi to take 

over the adult education activities for women 

at the Yikikini Women’s Centre, which had 

started two years earlier. The practice of encouraging 

and teaching women’s groups to sew, cook, make fibre 

craft and raffia work, and embroider cloths for the 

altar and for priests’ vestments, was very similar to the 

approach of the mission at Nguiu. The women’s centre 

was run from 1980 to 1988 by Sister Celine Auton 

in the building currently utilised by Munupi Arts and 

Crafts, and is remembered well by some of the current 

artists. The nuns had introduced fabric printing with 

small screens, an activity that was to be developed 

further. In 1988 Mark Lindberg, a potter and adult 

education tutor, arrived, and in 1989 screen-printing 

began in earnest with the arrival of prominent Sydney 

designer and artist Marie McMahon, who had earlier 

assisted the women of Bima Wear to design and print 

their own fabrics. Marie, together with ceramics adviser 

Sue Ostling, was instrumental in establishing the art 

direction of the group that would become Munupi. 

Initially the communal project created cohesion, 

identity and excitement. 

Of the murals that are such a feature of the centre, 

Marie says: 

I don’t recall why we started painting the murals, 

perhaps just to get something going in the shed as 

there was not much happening there. From memory 

the painting was a project to generate activity. 

When it comes down to it I think it was just that 

painting required fewer resources and equipment 

so it was something we could get going with. Each 

woman painted her ‘dreaming’ which explains the 

animal emblems. 2 

The brightly coloured graphic mural panels in the 

work space, and the fabric printing, made the flair 

and impact of this group of artists highly visible, and 

support was offered by the Pirlangimpi Council. 

The artists at the time included Maria Josette Orsto, 

Reppi Orsto, Donna Burak, Thecla Puruntatameri, 

Sheila Puruntatameri, Francesca Puruntatameri, Theresa 

Anne Tipiloura, Marie Simplicia Tipuamantumirri, 

Maree Puruntatameri and Karen Puruntatameri. They 

began to receive exposure largely due to their innovative 

approach to colour and design. Their multicolour 

works, either prints on paper or acrylic paintings on 

paper, incorporated designs of animals, birds and 

fish embedded in densely patterned backgrounds. 

The paintings were mesmeric and busy—lines, dots, 

zigzags and lozenges with circular sun or arm-band 

components. A series of significant exhibitions and 

programs was held in the 1990s, commencing with the 

first solo show for a Tiwi woman, Maria Josette Orsto, 

the daughter of Jean Baptiste Apuatimi and Declan 

Apuatimi. Her father had been the first Tiwi artist to 

have a solo exhibition. Maria Josette Orsto’s show was 

held at the Australian Girls Own Gallery (AGOG) 

in Canberra. The exhibition concentrated on circular 

Kulama motifs and strongly resonated with the style 

of her father’s work. 

In mid 1990 Annie Franklin took over the art 

adviser position at Pirlangimpi. By August of that 

year the Yikikini Centre and the Pirlangimpi Pottery 

were flourishing and it seemed sensible to combine 

the enterprises administratively to form Munupi Arts 

and Crafts Association, with Eddie Puruntatameri 

as the first president. The committee included 

Bernadette Puruntatameri, Donna Burak and Sheila 

Puruntatameri, among others. 

A two-week workshop held at Pirlangimpi with 

master printer Theo Tremblay, who was at that time 

assisting many Indigenous printmakers to develop 

their designs for printing on paper, saw skills and 

enthusiasm improve. The workshop allowed the artists 

to etch and proof in the familiar surroundings of their 

own art centre, with prints subsequently editioned in 

Canberra at Studio One. Despite physical difficulties 

due to limited space and equipment as well as the 

environmental hazards of dust and ochre in the centre, 

and many failures, over time an extensive range of 

prints was developed, including black-and-white lino 

cuts. Prints had an economic advantage, as multiple 

print runs allowed images to be available for numerous 

exhibitions at modest prices, and Munupi was able to 

achieve rapid growth in their community profile during 

the 1990s. 

The heyday of Munupi’s colourful style was from 

1991 to 1994, during which time the coloured prints 

and papers were shown at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi in 

Melbourne, and Savode in Brisbane; Munupi designs 

also formed the banners for the Fringe Festival in 

Adelaide. During this period the centre moved into 

creating commercial products as well—T-shirts, 

gift cards and paper—occasionally with partner 

organisations that included Community Aid Abroad 

and Amnesty International. 

A major exhibition called Our Country, Our Designs: 

Ngingingawula Murrakupini Ngingingawula Jilamara, 

which Susan Wangi Wangi and Reppi Orsto attended, 

was held at the Australian Embassy in Paris in 1992. 

Munupi artists showed ninety prints, 

paintings and carvings. The success of this 

show and commissions from Community 

Aid Abroad enabled the Munupi artists 

to dominate the 1993 Community Aid 

Abroad Calendar. Fabric printed by Tiwi 

Design from the designs of Munupi artists 

made, under licence, into clothing by 

the fashion company Ampiji and sold at 

Darwin airport. Artists continued to attend 

print workshops at Batchelor College, 

Darwin, and at the Northern Territory 

University and also experimented with 

the graphic possibilities of applying their 

designs to fabric utilising the wax batik 

technique. A number of commissions 

and licenses exposed Munupi designs 

to a wide popular audience through 

licensing agreements with companies 

such as Jumbana, then in Adelaide, and in 

products such as table mats, gift cards, calendars and 

decorative covers for magazines and books. Another 

significant event of 1993 was Nina Puruntatameri’s win 

in the new media section in the National Aboriginal 

Art Award at the Museum and Gallery of the Northern 

Territory in Darwin. 

Munupi’s move into populist acrylic colour at first 

put the art centre in a strong economic position, but 

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260 PirlangimPi: munuPi arts and Crafts 

PirlangimPi: munuPi arts and Crafts 261 

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over time the appeal of this brighter aesthetic waned as 

influences in Aboriginal art and public taste began to 

revert to earth colour and natural ochres. The artistic 

success of the ‘old ladies’ of Jilamara (see page xxx), 

Kitty Kantilla and Freda Warlapini, and their massive 

assistance to the viability of the Jilamara art enterprise, 

forced successive art advisers at Munupi to rethink 

their strategy, and over time most of the artists chose 

to return to basics, collect bush ochre and work with 

that and softer colours. The flamboyance evident in the 

murals that still grace the artists’ work area at Munupi 

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was eventually contained. At the same time, numerous 

Indigenous communities had gone into print-making 

and the competition had become fierce. Locally 

produced prints were discontinued as uneconomic, 

and Munupi began to send artists to outside print 

workshops as funding became available, particularly to 

Northern Editions at Charles Darwin University. 

pi r lang i m pi potte ry 

The Pirlangimpi Pottery, Eddie Puruntatameri’s 

second pottery, was built in an adjunct building once 

an old storehouse owned by the Pirlangimpi Council. 

This continued the tradition of making functional 

pottery—thrown domestic bowls, vases, cylinders and 

platters in earthenware. In 1986, with a grant from 

the Aboriginal Arts Board and a small electric kiln, 

Eddie Puruntatameri was able to take on trainees, who 

included his son Cecil and Regis Pangiraminni, who 

had worked at Tiwi Pottery on Bathurst Island. Adult 

education tutor and potter Mark Lindberg helped 

Eddie set up the pottery and built a double-chamber 

Bouri box kiln to Ivan McMeekin’s design. 

Pirlangimpi Pottery developed using different 

ceramic processes and media. Clay and glazes were 

initially bought from commercial suppliers and fired 

to earthernware temperatures. Apart from Eddie, the 

workers and trainees were not adept on the potter’s 

wheel, so a jigger-and-jolly was utilised to form the clay 

into bowls and plates and a heavy slab-roller prepared 

sheets of wet clay for hump-moulded platters. The 

surfaces of the earthenware pots were painted with 

Tiwi decorative patterns in bright and colourful 

underglazes, and a shiny clear glaze was used to finish 

surfaces. In an innovative move, elegant patterns were 

hand-painted by the women artists to decorate pots 

made by their male relatives. Maree Puruntatameri, 

who was also print-making and painting at Munupi, 

and other family members often decorated forms made 

by Eddie Puruntatameri. 

In July 1993 Maureen Spencer, a Darwin-based 

potter, was engaged to assist with management and 

supervision. Her encouragement of the use of colour 

and new decorative techniques resulted in a highly 

successful exhibition at Raintree Gallery in Darwin 

in October that year. 

Eddie Purantatameri’s work continued to be 

recognised and appreciated by potters throughout 

Australia. Although pleased with the reception accorded 

his colourful earthenware pottery, he longed to be able 

to produce stoneware again. However, he knew that the 

lengthy firings, stoking the kiln with timber, required 

more trained, skilled hands than he had available at 

Munupi. In 1994 he spent time at Kormilda College in 

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Darwin, where he demonstrated pottery and enjoyed 

continuing the tradition of making significant works 

for major events—for the Church, or for Australian 

Rules football matches. In August 1995 his life’s work 

reached its zenith when his ceramics were exhibited at 

the Ceramic Art and Perception Gallery in Sydney. In 

September that year Eddie tragically died only a few 

days after his eldest son, Cecil, whom he had trained to 

take over the pottery, had drowned in Apsley Strait. 

For a time the pottery was closed, and the next 

decade was a struggle for his family. After a lengthy 

period of mourning during which Maree Puruntatameri 

remained as a figurehead at Munupi, representing her 

husband in the symbolic supervisory role of Munupi 

president, and supported by her daughter Karen, 

Karen became president in 1997. Although Eddie had 

intended Cecil to follow him, the mantle of director 

of the pottery now fell on the shoulders of his younger 

son Robert, supported principally by Tiwi potter John 

Bosco Tipiloura, who moved to Pirlangimpi for a 

period to work with him. 

In 1995, just prior to Eddie’s untimely death, 

the Swiss potter Claude Presset had briefly visited 

the studio and worked there. Presset had previously 

worked in other countries with master potters from 

different cultural backgrounds, including Japan and 

India. Wishing to return to Munupi and take on 

a project of collaboration and development of the 

artists, Presset obtained funding from UNESCO, the 

Swiss Foundation for Culture and Art, and private 

companies. The years 1988–1997 had been declared 

the World Decade for Cultural Development, and in 

this context Presset was able to attract international 

sponsorship. Munupi was suitable for an Indigenous 

pottery project—it had a well-equipped studio and 

the Munupi Arts and Crafts Association was able 

to develop and market the resulting pottery. The 

Puruntatameri family and the community were 

enthusiastic about the possibility of Eddie’s work 

continuing. The interaction of international potters 

and local artists had a significant impact on the 

continued viability of the enterprise. 

Presset returned annually for several years, sharing 

skills and techniques with the Tiwi potters. The large 

Bouri box stoneware kiln had never actually been fired 

by Eddie. During his period of declining health, he had 

found earthenware fired in his electric kiln much easier 

to manage, and this had replaced his earlier genre. The 

dream of firing the stoneware kiln was finally realised 

when Presset, together with John Bosco Tipiloura and 

others at Munupi, organised its first firing in 1998 and 

dedicated it to the memory of Eddie Puruntatameri. 

The kiln was opened on the 50th anniversary of 

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PirlangimPi: munuPi arts and Crafts 263

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his birthday. A hundred works resulting from this 

firing were exhibited at Framed Gallery in Darwin in 

August 1998. Unusual in form, they exhibited some 

of the techniques utilised by the Swiss students who 

accompanied Presset, combined with the decorative 

techniques of Tiwi artists. John Bosco, highly skilled at 

the potter’s wheel and an elegant designer, made many 

beautiful works at this time utilising the stoneware 

slips and glazes developed by Presset specifically for the 

wood kiln, which was fired to 1,200° C. 

Presset and the organising art adviser at Munupi 

Art and Crafts, Lyn Helms, suggested at the time that 

‘the next stages require a new generation of young 

Tiwi people with good vocational training. John Bosco 

Tipiloura is already there with his love for pottery 

making and his joy when he is firing the wood kiln.’ 3 

The excitement generated by Presset’s presence, the 

stoneware firings and the steady routine of throwing 

and decorating vessels by John Bosco, inspired Robert 

Puruntatameri and he began to work full time in the 

pottery. Unfortunately, John Bosco Tipiloura’s ill-health 

finally forced him to return to Bathurst Island where 

kidney dialysis was possible. His still speaks of his 

desire to return to Munupi Pottery to work with Robert 

Puruntatameri and support the ceramic workshop 

begun by Eddie. 

Over the next five years Robert Puruntatamari’s 

skills increased with responsibility and constant 

practice. Pirlangimpi Pottery continues to operate 

on two levels—the thrown work being the province 

of Robert Puruntatameri, now with considerable 

experience, while the platters are made as slumpmoulded 

slabs and decorated with great design skill 

by women artists of Munupi. 

Ceramicist Geoff Crispin, mentor of the Tiwi 

pottery group in the early days, and still making 

frequent visits to the pottery to work with the other 

Tiwi artists, arranged for workshops and training to 

continue at Bathurst Island and at his own workshop 

in New South Wales. Also, intercultural experimental 

workshops have combined activities for the Tiwi 

potters and men and women from Ernabella and 

Hermannsberg, which also had Indigenous potteries. 

In 2007 Robert Puruntatameri benefited from a 

grant to attend the National Art School in Sydney. 

Here, his contact with well-respected potters, and the 

opportunity to understand the history of Australian 

ceramics which the school represented, was highly 

beneficial. This culminated in a significant showing 

of elegant thrown vases with his signature finely 

painted geometric patterns at the National Art School 

Gallery in the exhibition Arampini: Artists from the 

Tiwi Islands, 2010. 

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carvi ng an d 

pai nti ng conti n u es 

Older men in the Pirlangimpi area had continued 

throughout the 1970s and 1980s to make traditional 

items for ceremony and occasionally for sale. In 

particular, Mickey Geranium, an outstanding 

ceremonial leader, painter and carver, is mentioned 

today by many carvers for his influence on their 

work. Munupi Arts and Crafts was able to organise 

exhibitions and sales of such work more efficiently after 

its establishment. Prominent among the established 

carvers were Romualdo Puruntatameri, Bima Woody, 

Solo Nangamu, Tracy Puruntatameri, Calistus Babui 

and Paul Papujua. 

In recent years the young Declan Apuatimi 

(youngest son of Declan Apuatimi and Jean Baptiste 

Apuatimi) has taken up sculptural residency in the 

carving shelter at the rear of Munupi Arts and Crafts. 

His short, straight and squared-off tutini and his 

human figures are remarkably reminiscent of his father’s 

strong work and his progress as a sculptor is watched 

carefully by major galleries and curators. Nurtured by 

Munupi Arts and Crafts, the younger Declan Apuatimi 

is seen as having the potential to become a highly 

successful artist. 



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Increasingly Tiwi sculptors are innovating. A tutini 

with a sculptural forked apex surmounted by a rounded 

moon shape is sometimes replaced with an effigy of 

an AFL footballer whose arms mark the ovoid ball 

above. In 2010 an exhibition at the Australian Museum 

showed a variety of such ‘Footy Man’ figures from Tiwi 

sculptors across the art centres. 

Tourism has increased on the Islands and Munupi 

receives day trips by plane from Darwin and occasional 

cruise boats, which assist in the retail turnover of the 

craft shop and allow the artists to interact with visitors 

responding to their work. Approximately forty-five artists 

are members of Munupi, although far fewer work at the 

centre on a daily basis. The island community enjoys 

interacting with tourists and particular families are 

nominated to work professionally as guides and hosts: 

We have many visitors to the island. They come to 

experience the Tiwi way of life, the interaction between 

the visitors and the Tiwi people is of great benefit to 

both. The artists take the visitor out to their country 

to teach them bush tucker including collecting mud 

mussels and oysters, they then show them how to cook 

them in the coals and they all eat them. Ceremony is 

also demonstrated and the body designs which they 

paint onto the body for ceremony they see they also 

use when they paint on their art works. A great deal of 

knowledge is transferred through such visits. 4 

Munupi Arts and Crafts’ visual distinctiveness 

remains evident, as the original key artists still paint 

in the centre. Several have an almost 30-year history 

of painting and print-making, among them Maree 

Puruntatameri, Donna Burak, Fiona Puruntatameri, 

Francesca Puruntatameri and Susan Wanji Wanji. 

Formerly prolific artists Thecla Puruntatameri 

and Sheila Puruntatameri have now moved on to 

community work. Maree Puruntatameri and fourteen 

other members of the Puruntatameri family were 

honoured in 2010 in Arampini: Artists from the Tiwi 

Islands, a significant exhibition of paintings, prints 

and pottery at the National Art School Gallery in 

Sydney. This exhibition explored the creative context 

of making art in the contemporary situation of family 

and community. 

In 2011, two important elders of Pirlangimpi 

joined the artists at Munupi—Justin Puruntatameri 

and Cornelia Tipuamantumeri. Both over eighty years 

of age, their sure hands and dedication to Tiwi cultural 

expression are shown in their classic abstract paintings 

of great subtlety, using fine sweeps of dots applied 

with the pwoja. These lace-like patterns were once 

worn by Justin himself at ceremony, his chest and face 

scored with streams of delicate spotted lines of white 

clay. Cornelia’s art background was mainly in making 

tungas and weaving pandanus; however, in advanced 

age she now expressing visually the purest feelings of 

what it mans to be a Tiwi woman, with delicate ochre 

mark-making like windswept foam. The presence of 

these inspiring leders has aroused new interest in old 

Tiwi culture and language, and in the history they can 

explain to the younger centre members. 

The two most experienced senior artists at the 

Centre are Susan Wanji Wanji and Nina Puruntatameri. 

Both are solo exhibiting artists with a solid reputation 

in southern cities and are held in major collections. 

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m u n u pi artists 

declan apuatimi (b 1980) 

country: munupi, melville island (f), 

punjulow, bathurst island (m) 

skin group: japijapini (march fly) 

dance: trick dance 

Declan Apuatimi is named after his famous 

artist father Declan Apuatimi (1930–85). 

Although his father died when Declan was 

just five years old, he follows the family 

tradition and is a carver and painter in 

his father’s style. Declan started carving at 

Munupi Arts and Crafts in 2004 after moving 

from Bathurst Island where his mother Jean 

Baptiste Apuatimi paints at Tiwi Design. 

In 2006 Declan began painting with ochre 

on canvas—his paintings are based on the 

designs he uses on his carvings. Declan also 

works with prints, and produces pottery. 

He began learning pottery techniques by 

observing Robert Puruntatameri and Regis 

Pangiraminni at work in the Pirlangimpi 

pottery studio. In 2006 Declan was selected 

by Robert Puruntatameri to accompany 

himself and John Patrick Kelantamama on a 

residential visit to Whiteman Creek Pottery, 

in northern New South Wales, where the 

three Tiwi potters worked with master potter 

Geoff Crispin producing new works of woodfired 

porcelain. Since he first joined Munupi 

Arts and Crafts Association Declan has 

been an Executive Committee member and 

represents Munupi on the Tiwi Art Network 

Committee. 

donna (regina) burak 

(b 1972) 

country: mungaruwu, melville island (f), 

imalu, melville island (m) 


dance: yirrikipayi (crocodile) 

Donna Burak started etching in Canberra 

with Maria Josette Orsto in 1989. She 

participated in the first Munupi Arts 

and Crafts Centre exhibition, Munupi 

Dreaming: Shades of Ochre, Darwin, in 1990 

and has since exhibited work in national 

and international exhibitions. Born in 

Snake Bay, Donna grew up at Munupi 

but completed her schooling at Kormilda 

College in Darwin. Her parents are Big Don 

Mulaminni and Lydia Burak Tipakalippa. 

In 1992 Donna travelled to Paris with Susan 

Wanji Wanji to attend the opening of the 

Munupi Arts and Crafts Centre/Alliance 

Française Exhibition at the Australian 

Embassy. In 1994 Donna won the Art of 

Place Youth award, awarded 

by the Australian Heritage 

Commission, Canberra, 

through the Aboriginal and 

Torres Strait Islander Art 

Awards. Donna produces 

paintings, etchings and linocut 

prints and has participated in 

several printmaking workshops 

in Canberra. Donna is an 

important creative member 

of Munupi Arts and Crafts 

Centre, using her knowledge 

and skills to pass on Tiwi 

traditions and influence other 

artists. A proud member of 

her community, Donna has sat 

on the Pirlangimpi Council 

and the Munupi Arts and 

Crafts Association committee. 

She was also the Tiwi Region 

Executive Director on the 

Association of Northern, 

Kimberley and Arnhem 

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Aboriginal Artists (ANKAAA) Executive 

Committee in 2007 and 2008. 

Donna Burak’s work is featured in 

several important public and private 

collections, including the National Gallery 

of Australia, Museum and Art Gallery of 

the Northern Territory, Australian Museum, 

National Museum of Australia, News 

Limited, Flinders University Art Museum, 

Art Bank and the Kelton Foundation, Santa 

Monica, collections. 

i like to keep my old culture 

strong. if we don’t have kids we 

still pass it on to brother’s kids— 

i don’t have kids. it’s good our 

brother’s kids have to learn from 

their aunties. [Commenting on 

family name of Burak] mum 

has a tiwi name, tipakalippa, i 

think one bloke from England or 

scotland gave that name Burak 

to my mum’s dad. 

dOnna BuraK 

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josephine burak (b 1977) 

country: mungaruwu, melville island (f), 

imalu, melville island (m) 



Josephine Burak and Donna Burak are 

the daughters of Lydia Burak Tipakalippa, 

a senior artist at Munupi Arts and Crafts 

Centre. Lydia taught her daughters to 

process and weave pandanus fibre into 

baskets and mats, and they both are 

proficient in the craft. Josephine is also a 

painter and printmaker and her etchings 

were included in the Ngini Ngawula 

Ngiramini Amitiya Murakupu: Our 

Language and Our Country, exhibition, 

Northern Editions, Charles Darwin 

University, 2005, along with the work of 

twelve other women artists from Munupi 

Arts and Crafts. She also contributed work 

to the Woven Forms: Contemporary Basket 

Making in Australia touring exhibition, 

FORM, WA. 

lydia burak tipakalippa 

(b 1937) 

country: pitjimirra, melville island (f), 

rangini, melville island (m) 


dance: jarrikarlani (turtle) 

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Lydia Burak is a respected custodian of 

traditional medical knowledge and has 

significant experience of using natural dyes 

to colour the pandanus fibre used in Tiwi 

weaving. She has made traditional baskets 

and woven mats using pandanus leaves and 

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natural dyes since she was a child. Lydia 

works at Munupi painting on bark, paper 

and canvas. She prefers natural ochres, 

and also carves ironwood and makes 

tungas. Since 2000 Lydia has also worked 

as a printmaker. 

Lydia Burak’s work has been exhibited 

nationally and internationally since the 

mid 1990s and is held in the Museum and 

Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and 

Museum of Victoria collections. 

theresa burak (b 1975) 

country: shark bay, mungaruwu, 

mellville island (f), imalu, 

melville island (m) 



Theresa Burak started working at the 

Yikikini women’s centre after finishing 

school in the early 1990s (see page XXX). 

Theresa works alongside her mother 

and sisters at the Munupi Arts and 

Crafts Centre. 

Theresa Burak’s work has been exhibited 

nationally and internationally since the 

early 1990s and is held in the Museum 

and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, 

Art Bank and Australian Embassy, 

Washington collections. 

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bernadette (berna) 

mungatopi (b 1971) 

country: purrurpunali, melville island (f), 

munupi, melville island (m) 

skin group: miyaringa (pandanus) 


Bernadette Mungatopi moved to 

Pirlangimpi to join her partner Robert 

Puruntatameri when their daughter Cecilena 

was a baby. The Mungatopi family was 

recorded in films titled Mourning for M 

and especially Goodbye Old Man, a famous 

Pukumani ceremony conducted at Karslake 

for Bernadette’s grandfather Geoffrey 

Mungatopi. Bernadette began working at 

the Pirlangimpi Pottery in 2004 and began 

painting at Munupi Arts and Crafts Centre 

in 2005, experimenting with natural ochres 

and acrylic on canvas. Bernadette has been 

represented in several group exhibitions 

including the Munupi Arts Show, Gallery 

Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, in 2005. 

irene mungatopi (b 1969) 

father – brendan mungatopi; mother - 

mona puruntatameri; (stepmother– nora 

parlapamini) [info to be checked]] 

other names: milicent hetherington 

country: jurrupi, jessie river, melville 

island (f), rangini, melville island (m) 

skin group: yarrinapila (red ochre) 

dance: nyarringari (magpie goose) 

Irene Mungatopi takes her name from her 

famous step-father Laurie Nelson Mungatopi. 

Laurie, also called Sepnauti and Laurie 

One Eye, married Irene’s mother Hilda 

at Milikapiti. After attending Kormilda 

College, Darwin, Irene returned and worked 

at Jilamara Art Centre, Melville Island, 

where she assisted Felicity Green as an office 

worker and painted as well. After moving 

to Pirlangimpi in 1997 Irene worked in 

the Munupi Arts & Crafts Centre office, 

banking, cataloguing and doing bookkeeping 

under then art manager Lyn Helms. Irene also 

continued painting at Munupi. 

Irene Mungatopi’s work has been 

exhibited nationally and internationally and 

is held in the collection of the Australian 

High Commission, Nairobi, Kenya. 

Through the Replant Folio, a collection 

of twelve plant etchings commissioned by 

Nomad Art, Irene has had seven etchings 

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allocated to the collections of the Northern 

Territory Herbarium, Broadmeadows Health 

Services, Museum and Art Gallery of the 

Northern Territory, Artbank, Robin Hirst 

private collection; and the South Australia 

Botanic Gardens. 

reppie orsto (b 1959 ) 

other names: reparata 

papajua 

country: munupi, melville island 

(f), wangurruwu (marluwu), 

bathurst island (m) 

skin group: yikikini (white 

cockatoo) 

dances: jarrikarlani (turtle), 

muluwa (hangman) 

Reppie Orsto was one of the 

contributing artists to the first 

major collective works produced 

at Pirlangimpi in 1989, under 

the adult education art initiative 

and with the advice of Marie 

McMahon. These painted panel 

works were placed around the 

community at Pirlangimpi airport, 

the Council Office, Pirlangimpi 

Pottery and the Women’s Centre. 

The other contributing artists 

were Donna Burak, Francesca 

Puruntatameri, Therese Ann 

Tipiloura, Fatima Kantilla and Thecla 

Puruntatameri. Reppie began working at 

Munupi Arts & Crafts in 1985, painting 

and producing fabric designs. Reppie also 

participated in numerous printmaking 

workshops throughout the 1990s. She 

has represented the Tiwi community 

internationally, travelling to Paris to attend 

the opening of the Munupi Exhibition at 

the Australian Embassy in 1992 and, at the 

invitation of the Canadian government, 

travelling to attend the exhibition Epama 

epam!: everything has meaning, an exhibition 

of contemporary Aboriginal art from Australia, 

held at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria 

to coincide with the Commonwealth Games 

of 1994. Reppie held her first solo show 

at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, in 

2002, and has been included in numerous 

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art 

Award exhibitions. 

Reppie Orsto’s work is held in the 

National Gallery of Australia, Museum 

and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, 

News Limited, Parliament House 

Collection, National Maritime Museum, 

Northern Territory Department of 

Conservation, and Kelton Foundation, 

Santa Monica, collections. 



swapped pic of regis 

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regis pangiraminni (b 1962) 

country: ranku malau, bathurst island 

(f), milikapiti, melville island (m) 

skin group: wulijula/tumpurama/ 

kartukuni 

dances: tayamini (dingo), kapala (boat) 

Regis Pangiraminni met Eddie Puruntatameri 

and John Bosco Tipiloura when he was 

working as an apprentice under Steve 

Anderson at Tiwi Design. He went on to 

become an apprentice to Eddie Puruntatameri 

in the Pirlangimpi Pottery studio in the early 

1980s and is a key figure in the history of 

Pirlangimpi Pottery. Regis has been an active 

cultural leader, teaching children through the 

Pirlangimpi School art project and sitting 

as Chairman of Munupi Arts and Crafts 

and as an Executive Committee Member of 

ANKAAA and Tiwi Art Network. He has 

worked in many roles in the community, 

including as a police liaison officer. 

i got all the good knowledge 

from the elders, especially my 

father’s brother, george norm 

Pangiraminni, when he was 

carving poles. He also carved 

birds and made spears. He was 

an elder in Kulama ceremony, for 

everything in our cultural way. He 

was a cultural man. Kulama was 

a very important time for us— 

that’s when i used to go every 

day because older people are 

more better. at every ceremony 

i watch and learn—but—i didn’t 

go inside the circle. i remember 

foxy tipimwuti—he used to call 

out for pig dance, buffalo dance— 

‘all you buffalo people, get up!’ 

to me it’s really important for 

our kids to know and learn—We 

are losing a bit of the cultural. 

my tribal land is ranku, that’s 

my country, on the other side of 

Bathurst island. 

rEgis Pangiraminni 

samson poantimului (b 1972) 

country: warankuru (ranku), 

bathurst island 

skin group: takaringa (mullet) 


Sampson is the son of Samuel ‘Marbuk’ 

Poantimului. He worked as an artist at the 

Ngaruwanajirri Art Centre at Nguiu on 

Bathurst Island for several years where, as 

well as meticulously painting on paper, he 

designed and cut lino stencils for prints 

on paper and fabric. His design flair was 

recognised in 1995 when he jointly won the 

competition to design the current official 

Tiwi Islands flag. His prints were exhibited 

at the Drill Hall Gallery Canberra in 2008. 

Since moving to Melville Island and 

joining Munupi Arts and Crafts in 2010, 

his well-designed paintings have featured in 

several group shows in Darwin, Tasmania, 

Sydney, and Victoria. 

Sampson Poantimului’s work is featured 

in the Parliament House collection, Canberra. 

samuel poantimului (b 1939) 

other names: marbuk 

country: ranku, bathurst island 

skin group: japijapina (march fly) 


Samuel Poantimului grew up in the small 

community of Ranku on Bathurst Island 

where he watched his father carving tutini, 

collecting and grinding ochre and painting 

the surfaces. Samuel moved to Melville 

Island in 2000 where he began to carve 

for Munupi Arts and Crafts Association, 

sometimes assisted by his partner Josette 

Papajua or their daughter Alana. A skilled 

carver, his large figures occasionally feature 

footballers for the AFL with ball held aloft 

in what has become a new tradition of 

immortalising a great mark taken by a player 

in the artist’s team. 

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natalie puantulura (b 1975) 

country: n/p [[info tobe added]] 



Natalie Puantulura’s father, Janarius 

Puantulura, was a mechanic and her 

mother Carmelina Puantulura, the eldest 

daughter of Declan Apuatimi and Jean 

Baptiste Apuatimi, was a school teacher at 

Wurrumiyanga, Bathurst Island. As a child 

Natalie watched her grandfather Declan 

Apuatimi (1930–85) carving and painting 

each day. As the grandaughter of two great 

Tiwi artists and culture keepers she also 

learnt Tiwi culture. She was particularly 

influenced artistically by her grandmother 

Jean Baptiste Apuatimi, who taught her and 

explained the cultural importance of the 

designs inher own paintings. In 2004 Natalie 

and her partner, Edward Malati Yunupingu, 

moved from Bathurst Island to Pirlangimpi 

and began working with Munupi Arts and 

Crafts. Natalie has been exhibiting since 

2002, and in 2003 and 2006 was a finalist 

in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres 

Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art 

Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 

Her large black and white geometric 

canvases exploring detailed composite 

patterns are being sought by many admiring 

collectors. 

fiona puruntatameri 

(b 1973) 

country: warriyuwu, bathurst island (f), 

pupatuwu, bathurst island (m) 

skin group: takaringa (scaly mullet) 

dance: kirrilima (jungle fowl) 

Fiona Puruntatameri joined Munupi Arts 

& Crafts in 1990, where she 

works mainly as a painter 

and printmaker. She has 

participated in printmaking 

workshops held at Studio One 

Print Workshop, Canberra, 

and in numerous national 

and international exhibitions 

since the first Munupi 

Arts and Crafts exhibition, 

Munupi Dreaming: Shades 

of Ochre, Darwin, in 1990. 

In 1996 Fiona won the Art 

of Place youth award at 

the Aboriginal and Torres 

Strait Islander Art Awards 

of the Australian Heritage 

Commission, Canberra. Fiona 

was one of six Tiwi artists 

commissioned to paint a 

mural on the outside walls of 

the Lighthouse building for 

the 2010 Darwin Festival. 

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Fiona Puruntatameri’s work is held 

in national and international collections, 

including the National Gallery of Australia, 

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern 

Territory, News Limited, Flinders University, 

Artbank and the Kelton Foundation, 

Santa Monica. 


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francesca puruntatameri 

(b 1965) 

country: goose creek, melville island 

(f), warriyuwu, bathurst island (m) 

skin group: wantaringuwi (sun/fire) 

dance: nyarringari/wurrikiliki 

(magpie goose) 

Francesca Puruntatameri returned to 

Pirlangimpi in 1993 to work in the bank 

and library after attending secondary school 

to Year 11 at St John’s College, Darwin. 

She worked for a short time at Munupi 

Arts & Crafts but left to work at the bakery 

for six months. Following her return to 

art practice at Munupi she developed her 

skills at printing and fabric design. She also 

undertook further courses and printmaking 

workshops, completing a Certificate in Arts 

and Crafts at Batchelor College. Francesca 

has exhibited nationally and internationally 

since 1994 and in 2001 had work included 

in the exhibition Islands in the Sun, Prints 

by Indigenous Artists of Australia and the 

Australasian Region, National Gallery of 

Australia. Since 2001, Francesca has taught 

Tiwi language as well as arts and craft 

at Pirlangimpi Primary School. In 2010 

she travelled to the National Art School, 

Sydney, for the exhibition Arampini: Artists 

from the Tiwi Islands, and assisted Maree 

Puruntatameri in the design and execution 

of a wall mural in the exhibition. 

Francesca Puruntatameri’s work is held in 

the Museum of Cultural History, University 

of Oslo collection. 

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justin puruntatameri 

(b c 1928) 

country: munupi point (m), yapilika 

(maxwell creek), melville island (f) 

[father first?] 

skin group: warnarringa (sun) 


Justin was born before permanent European 

settlement at a place called Kadipuwu, 

adjacent to the remains of Fort Dundas 

on Melville Island. When the mission was 

established at Garden Point (present-day 

Pirlangimpi) his family stayed nearby in a 

bark house. As a child he paddled a canoe 

with his brothers and speared turtles, fish 

and stingrays, or hunted in the mangroves 

for crabs and mangrove worm, or in the 

forests for sugarbag honey, carpet snakes, 

bandicoots, wallabies and goannas. 

Attending the ceremonies Justin learnt 

all the old Tiwi songs sung by his father 

Noel Maralampuwi. His mother Grace 

Apuatimi also passed on to him all she knew 

of Tiwi culture. 

One of nine siblings, who included 

the renowned carver Paddy Freddy 

Puruntatameri, Justin is now the sole 

survivor and himself had nine children. 

He tells of seeing numerous Japanese planes 

overhead during World War II, and how 

Tiwi ran and hid in the bush, some in 

trenches at Punata. 

As a young man Justin went pearling 

with the Japanese camped near Garden 

Point, paid, he says, in sugar and flour. A 

Japanese man named Yasou slept with Tiwi 

women, and knew that one of the women 

had given birth to his daughter. Justin 

remained confident that due to his kinship 

with Tiwi, Yasou would tell the Japanese 

military not to attack Pirlangimipi as his 

daughter lived there. 

In later years Justin worked on the 

mission lugger St Francis, and also travelled 

to Wadeye (Port Keats). 

Justin is the most respected ‘culture 

man’ on both of the Tiwi Islands, and is 

one of the few who can still speak the 

very old Tiwi dialect; he has also retained 

limited knowledge of ‘Macassan’, due 

to his contact with them when he was a 

child. Even in his eighties he teaches 

school children at Pirlangimpi, reminding 

them of correct Tiwi words and phrases. 

Justin Puruntatameri began painting 

at Munupi Arts and Crafts in May 2010. 

Previously, his experience in mark-making 

and design was through body painting 

(jilamara) on ceremonial participants for 

Tiwi ceremony. 

With only a few exhibitions held 

in 2011, incuding Alcaston Gallery, 

Melbourne, and a documentary film on his 

life and art planned, Justin Puruntatameri 

has become the ‘most collectable’ 

contemporary artist currently working 

at Munupi, a testament to his honest 

expression of his life as a traditional Tiwi 

mark-maker. 

karen puruntatameri (b 1973) 

country: rangini, melville island (f), 

yamba (m) 



Karen Puruntatameri is the daughter of 

renowned Tiwi potter Eddie Puruntatameri 

and painter Maree Puruntatameri. Karen 

began work at Munupi Arts and Crafts 

in 1994, continuing a strong family 

tradition in decorative pottery, painting 

and printing. Her work reveals influences 

from both of her parents artistic and 

cultural heritage—her Tiwi father’s pottery 

techniques, style and decoration and her 

Arrente (Central Australian) mother’s 

designs. Karen has studied a Certificate II 

Arts and Crafts at the Batchelor Institute 

of Indigenous Tertiary Education, and has 

been extensively exhibited in Tiwi group 

shows nationally and internationally. In 

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swapped this for the red painting

2010 she took up a position in the childcare 

centre and is enjoying contact with families, 

and the ongoing designing, printing and 

quiltmaking with Tiwi fabric designs at 

the centre, as well as occasional paintings 

for Munupi. 

Karen Puruntatameri’s work is held 

in the News Limited, Flinders University, 

Australian High Commission, Nairobi, and 

National Gallery of Australia collections. 

maree puruntatameri (b 1952) 

country: yamba, nt (f), sandy bore 

outstation, nt (m) 

skin group: burula 

dance: woppa (caterpillar) 

Maree Puruntatameri moved from Central 

Australia to the Tiwi Islands when she met 

Tiwi potter Eddie Puruntatameri, then 

studying pottery in Darwin. Maree and 

Eddie had six children, many of whom 

are practising artists. Maree’s style reflects 

traditional influences from both her desert 

home near Alice Springs, and her longtime 

residence on the Islands. A founding 

elder of Munupi, Maree was a mainstay 

of the Centre until a few years after Eddie 

Puruntatameri and her eldest son Ceci died 

in 1985. She has recently returned to paint 

occasionally for Munupi but has refocused 

on assisting her family and caring for her 

grandchildren. Maree is recognised for her 

gouache on paper and canvas work, and 

for her prints, including limited edition 

reduction lino-prints and etchings. Maree 

was included in the Fremantle Print Awards 

in 1995 and 2002, and has had work in 

several National Aboriginal & Torres Strait 

Islander Art Award exhibitions. In 2001 

Maree was included in the National Gallery 

of Australia touring exhibition, Islands in the 

Sun, Prints by Indigenous Artists of Australia 

and the Australasian Region which was the 

first major exhibition of contemporary prints 

by indigenous artists from Arnhem Land, 

Bathurst and Melville Islands, Torres Strait 

Islands, Papua New Guinea, Aotearoa New 

Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Maree also 

works her designs onto pottery. In 2010 

the Puruntatameri family was honoured in 

the large combined exhibition Arampini: 

Artists from the Tiwi Islands at the National 

Art School, Sydney. Maree designed and 

added 2 pages to munupi here >> 

supervised a wall mural for this event. 

The mural, painted by senior students and 

visiting artists at the national Art School, 

was taken from Maree’s well-known print 

Jilamara, or Body Painting 2003, which 

had become a popular image representing 

Munupi on merchandise. 

Maree Puruntatameri’s work is held in 

the National Gallery of Australia, National 

Museum of Australia, Charles Darwin 

University, News Limited, John Sands Pty 

Ltd and the Gifu Museum, Japan. 

nina (ludwina) 

puruntatameri (b 1971) 

country: pukulimpi, melville island (f), 

port keats, nt (m) 



Nina Puruntatameri learned many Tiwi 

designs and cultural traditions as a young 

girl working with her father, Romuald 

Puruntatameri, a renowned cultural leader 

and artist, painting his finely carved spears. 

Her grandfather, Paddy Teeampi Tepomitari 

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Puruntatameri, and her aunt, Rosina 

Puantulura, are also celebrated Tiwi carvers. 

After leaving school Nina worked at the adult 

education centre on Bathurst Island, later 

moving to Garden Point, then Snake Bay for 

a period, where she continued to experiment 

in art. On moving to Pirlangimpi, she joined 

Munupi Arts and Crafts. While her main 

focus is painting on canvas and bark, Nina 

also produces prints and etchings. In 1993 

Nina’s skill as a printmaker was recognised 

when her etching won the Wandjuk Marika 

Memorial Award, through the National 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art 

Awards. Nina’s work has been continuously 

exhibited in Tiwi group shows throughout 

Australia and internationally for almost 

20 years, including two solo exhibitions at 

Raft Artspace, Mipura Kirimi: body painting 

designs, 2005, and Nina Puruntatameri: New 

works, 2007. Although she often prefers to 

paint at home her work is exhibited through 

Munupi Arts and Crafts Centre. 

Nina Puruntatameri’s work is represented 

in many Australian public and private 

collections, including the National Gallery 

of Victoria, Museum and Art Gallery of 

the Northern Territory, Australian National 

Maritime Museum, Artbank, Flinders 

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University, La Trobe University, Batchelor 

Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, 

and Macquarie Bank. International 

collections holding Nina’s work include the 

Australian Embassy, Paris, Gifu Museum, 

Japan, the Levi-Kaplan Collection,Seattle, 

USA, Museum fur Volkerkunde, Hamburg, 

Germany, the Kerave Art Museum, 

Helsinki, and the Rovanelli Art Museum, 

Lapland, Finland. 

i grew up when i was small at 

Paru. all the old people lived 

there—matthias ulungura is 

famous, he was my father’s 

brother—and the other families 

there belonging to alan Kerinauia 

and Jerry Kerinauia. so i got a 

good family history. i used to 

watch all the old people, even 

that old lady Kitty, she used to 

live there with her husband. i 

married Black Joe’s son so my 

kids are his grandchildren. We 

are all family. 

i used to watch them doing 

carving. i was only probably ten 

years old, and all my big brothers 

and sisters used to go across by 

canoe to nguiu to school. then 

my parents came to Pirlangimpi. 

so i went to school here and 

then i went to Kormilda College 

and then after to nguiu to learn 

proper way, tiwi language and 

learn history. i took photographs 

too for history books in the 

literature production unit. 

at nguiu first i was doing batik, 

they learn me to do brush and 

canvas, and to cut tungas and 

do bark basket. 

i was married at 18 years old 

and then i moved to snake Bay. 

that was the same time as Kitty 

Kantilla. i was etching too with 

annie franklin—back in 88 [or 

later] i think. annie franklin sent 

those first plates from munupi to 

snake Bay for me to do there. 

nina PuruntatamEri 

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robert puruntatameri 

(b 1975) 

country: rangini, melville island (f), 

yambah station, central australia (m) 



Robert Puruntatameri comes from a family 

of artists, being the son of artist Maree 

Puruntatameri and the late Tiwi potter 

Eddie Puruntatameri. Robert started 

working at Pirlangimpi Pottery in 1994. 

While his work reflects influences from 

both his father’s Tiwi and mother’s Central 

Australian and Tiwi influenced styles, 

Robert has developed his own approach as 

a ceramicist and carver. Attending many 

workshops, residencies, conferences and 

events, he has become one of the Tiwi 

Islands’ most successful and creative artists. 

Robert has attended workshops with 

sculptor Bruce Armstrong, 2005, and was 

twice artist-in-residence at the National 

Art School, Sydney, first in 2005 under the 

mentorship of ceramicist, Bill Samuels, and 

the second time with Merran Easson and 

Don Court. In 2006 he joined John Patrick 

Kelantumama and Declan Apuatimi in a 

residency with master potter Geoff Crispin 

at the Whiteman Creek Pottery in northern 

New South Wales. Between May 2008 

and July 2009, as a result of attending the 

National Ceramics Conference in 2006, 

Robert was involved in a series of reciprocal 

workshops involving the Ernabella, 

Hermannsberg and Tiwi Islands potteries, 

designed to give artists from remote areas the 

opportunity to share techniques and develop 

connections. In 2007 Robert was shortlisted 

for the inaugural Indigenous Ceramic Art 

Award at the Shepparton Art Gallery. In 

2010 he exhibited in Arampini: Artists from 

the Tiwi Islands, at the National Art School, 

Sydney, and at Peter Pinson Gallery in 

Woollahra. In September 2011 the dream of 

firing Eddie Puruntatameri’s stoneware kiln 

was finally realised during a visit by mentor 

Geoff Crispin. 

As a member of the Munupi Executive 

Committee and Chairperson of the Tiwi 

Art Network, Robert has been an advocate 

for keeping Tiwi culture alive through 

art, representing Tiwi artists on many 

occasions, including through his advocacy 

as a member of the executive committee of 

the Association of Northern, Kimberley and 

Arnhem Aboriginal Artists (ANKAAA). 

Robert Puruntatameri’s ceramics have 

been acquired by Grafton Regional Gallery, 

NSW, the National Museum of Australia, 

and significant private collections. 

When i started there were a lot 

of challenges for me, not only 

making pots, but i had to fire 

them to the right temperature and 

glaze them. i had to get to know 

the differences of the glazes. 

i started many things on my 

own, sometimes regis comes 

and gives me a hand because 

he had experience working with 

my dad. sometimes my partner 

Bernadette does a bit of slab 

work as well. 

she was painting with ochres on 

canvas, then i asked her to try 

some slab work, and she liked it. 

i like visiting and working with 

pottery friends and handling 

different clay, pottery clay. 

Once i met the daughter of 

ivan mcmeekin at my pottery 

exhibition. it was good to have 

a chat about her father’s time 

with my father. John Patrick, Yell, 

introduced me to her. 

then i went to national art 

school sydney a second time 

and studied more about glazes. 

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don Court came up here too. it 

was good to have him helping 

me because i’m usually on 

my own and he did a good job 

making the clay for me. now i 

have some new ideas from that 

clay, mixing the white and the 

red together. 

i make white and red clay pots 

now, and plates. i don’t hurry 

because that can cause a few 

problems with the pots—drying 

too fast or opening the kiln 

too soon. 

i like pottery and travelling to 

meet other people who knew 

my father or maybe they are 

potters too. i’m going to keep on 

with this pottery, it’s a tiwi pottery 

and we think it is important. One 

of my kids will take it over after 

me too—so i got to keep going. 

i am happy that at last i got to fire 

the wood-fired kiln in front of the 

studio that my father built. 

rOBErt PuruntatamEri 

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sheila puruntatameri 

(b 1971) 

country: rangini, melville island, nt (f), 

pumalawi, melville island, nt (m) 

skin group: takaringa (mullet) 


Sheila Puruntatameri worked for a short 

time at the Pulurumpi School Library 

before joining Munupi Arts and Crafts. First 

exhibiting in 1990, Sheila has been included 

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in numerous national and international Tiwi 

group exhibitions. In 1991 she attended a 

four-week printmaking workshop at Studio 

One, Canberra, later exhibiting her print 

work in the 1995 and 2006 Fremantle 

Print Awards, Fremantle Arts Centre. Sheila 

moved to Milikapiti, Bathurst Island, in 

2001 and joined the Jilamara Arts and Craft 

Centre where she worked until 2005 before 

returning to Pirlangimpi and resuming 

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her work through Munupi. Sheila has 

produced a number of posters, such as a 

health and nutrition bush tucker poster, to 

help educate people on the nutritional and 

cultural importance of traditional foods. 

Her paintings on paper were included in 

Arampini: Artists from the Tiwi Islands, 2010. 

Sheila Puruntatameri’s work is held in 

the Artbank Collection and the Kelton 

Foundation Collection, Santa Monica. 

tracy puruntatameri (b 1961) 

country: pukulimpi, melville island (f), 

port keats (m) 



Tracy Puruntatameri’s forebears include 

several renowned for their painting and 

carving, among them his father, Romuald 

Puruntatameri, and grandfather, Paddy 

Teeampi Tepomitari Puruntatameri. Tracy 

works as a member of both Munupi Arts 

and Crafts and Jilamara Arts and Crafts, 

Melville Island, as a carver, painter and 

potter. His sister Nina Puruntatameri also 

works at Munupi Arts and Crafts. Tracy 

has produced exceptional Pukumani poles 

and Tokwampinni ironwood carvings as 

a member of both centres. In 2006 he 

was one of six Tiwi Island carvers whose 

collaborative work was selected in the 2006 

Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award 

exhibition, Werribee Park, Victoria. Tracy’s 

prints were included in Islands in the Sun: 

Prints by Indigenous Artists of Australia and 

the Australasian region, National Gallery of 

Australia, Canberra, 2001 and the Fremantle 

Print Awards, Fremantle Arts Centre, 2002. 

Tracy Puruntatameri’s work is held 

in the Australian National Maritime 

Museum collection. 

cornelia tipuamantumeri 

(b 1930) 

country: imalu point, melville island (f), 

munupi, melville island (m) 

skin group: warnarringa (sun) 

dreaming: jarrikalani (turtle) 

Cornelia Tipuamantumeri was born 

adjacent to the present-day barge landing at 

Pirlangimpi. She remembers a time when 

were it was very rare to encounter outsiders 

in Tiwi lands, but she also remembers 

stories of buffalo-shooters’ raids on Tiwi 

camps, and that early visits from Japanese 

and ‘Malay’ seafarers were more common 

that encroachments from the European 

world. By the time she was a young woman 

the mission had begun at Garden Point. 

Cornelia occasionally assisted the nuns, 

teaching weaving and traditional Tiwi 

dances to the girls. 

Cornelia married Steven 

Tipuamantamerri and they had one child, 

a daughter, Dolores Tipuamantamerri. She 

also helped raise Harry Wilson, a young 

boy from the Port Keats area in the west of 

the Northern Territory, who was one of the 

mainland children sent to Garden Point. 

Harry Wilson became a community leader 

on his return home and led his extended 

family to set up their own independent 

community at Peppimenarti. 

Cornelia, a gifted traditional weaver 

with full knowledge of ceremony, song and 

dance, only recently joined the art centre. 

So far her exploration of paint and ochre 

on canvas has concentrated on minimalist 

swathes of dots, applied carefully over many 

days. Like some of the great Tiwi artists of 

previous decades, the surety of her practice, 

and her skill and aesthetic confidence, 

immediately attracted the attention of state 

galleries and private collectors. 

Cornelia Tipuamantumeri exhibits 

through Alcaston Galleries, Melbourne, and 

in the annual Tiwi Art Network Exhibition 

in Darwin. 

a bit dark too 

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maryanne tungatalum 

(b 1964) 

country: wurrumiyanga, bathurst island 

(f), ranku, bathurst island (m) 

skin group: yarrinapila (red ochre) 

dance: piki piki (pig) 

Maryanne Tungatalum was adopted and 

brought up by her mother’s sister, Hilda 

Kelantumama, who is the mother of John 

Patrick Kelantamama. When Maryanne 

was attending St Theresa’s School on 

Bathurst Island, she learnt Tiwi culture 

from her uncle Stanley Munkara, one of the 

Tiwi Islands’ most influential leaders, who 

was determined to keep traditional songs, 

ceremonies, dance and art alive. Maryanne 

also continues to keep the old Tiwi ways 

strongly. Maryanne has worked at Munupi 

Arts and Crafts, Melville Island, and Bima 

Wear, Bathurst Island, and has exhibited 

widely, in group exhibitions, nationally 

and internationally since 1996. In 2004 

she had an etching selected for the Shell 

Fremantle Print Awards, and had work 

included in Northern Editions Gallery 

exhibitions, Charles Darwin University in 

2005 and 2006. 

i grew up with the family, my 

adopted mother, auntie, Hilda 

Kelantumama. she taught me to 

cook damper and the family go 

to fourcroy for camping, hunting 

mud mussel, turtle eggs. the 

turtles lay their eggs there, we boil 

that egg. also we hunt for fish, 

stingray, wallaby, possum and 

carpet snake. i really enjoyed my 

life with her. i moved to munupi, 

Pulurumpi, in 1985, got married 

in 1992. i am still working at the 

art centre—i will keep 

going till i get older. 

i enjoy my art and 

sometimes we go to 

darwin for a workshop. 

Old man stanley 

(munkara) told us stories 

of going to sydney to 

dance. stanley’s wife was 

my mother and adoption 

mother’s sister—there 

were five sisters. We 

watch him in Kulama 

ceremony. His wife used 

to teach us, learn old tiwi 

ways. now today, i just 

go with old people here. 

marYannE 

tungatalum 

susan wanji wanji (b 1955) 

country: flying fox creek, arnhem land, 

nt (f), navy landing, liverpool river, 

nt (m) 


dance: mantupunga (tuna fish) 

Susan Wanji Wanji grew up in Maningrida 

in Arnhem Land and as a young girl learnt 

to make bark paintings and intricately 

woven mats and baskets. In 1990 she 

started working at Munupi Arts and Crafts, 

developing a unique style influenced by 

both Tiwi and Arnhem Land cultures. Susan 

works with ochres, acrylics and gouache 

on paper and canvas, and produces limited 

edition lino-cut prints and etchings. She 

is also a fine weaver and tunga maker. In 

1991 Susan participated in a printmaking 

workshop at Studio One, Canberra, and 

her work in print remains a strong part of 

her practice. In 1992 Susan travelled to 

Paris with fellow artist Donna Burak to the 

opening of the Alliance Française exhibition 

at the Australian Embassy. Since 1990, Susan 

has exhibited extensively. She was selected 

for the Fremantle Print Award exhibition in 

1993 and 1994 and for numerous National 

Aboriginal Art Award exhibitions at the 

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern 

Territory. Susan has had two solo exhibitons 

at Karen Brown Gallery, Darwin, in 2007 

and 2009. 

Susan Wanji Wanji’s work is held in 

several university collections, including 

the Queensland University of Technology, 

Flinders University, Macquarie University and 

Australian National University, and in the 

collections of the National Gallery of Australia, 

Australian National Maritime Museum, Art 

Gallery of South Australia, Queensland Art 

Gallery, Museum and Art Gallery of the 

Northern Territory and in the international 

left: maryanne captions to go here captions to go here 




right: susan captions to go here captions to go here captions 




far right: edward captions to go here captions to go here 




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collections of Levi Kaplan, Seattle, USA, 

and the Australian Embassy, Paris. 

When i went to school in 

maningrida we wore flour bags 

wrapped around. i used to paddle 

about in a dugout canoe on my 

own when i was only eleven years 

old. my father made me a sail. 

and i also learned to paint on 

bark. i used to copy my uncle in 

maningrida and Croker. i used to 

do weaving too, baskets, mats 

and all that. now my art is tiwi, it is 

easier and not so dangerous … 5 

i came here for the funeral of 

my stepfather dilbi dilbi who died 

on melville island. then i stayed. 

i sometimes go back to Croker 

island to see family. 

One day here on melville island i 

walked 17 miles away from the 

community, walking and hunting 

with all the women, getting mud 

mussels in the mangroves. 

suddenly a crocodile reared up 

and hit me. i was lost for two days. 

the crocodile was hunting and 

looking for me, so i climbed a 

tree and i slept there, and rested 

my head on the tree. sometimes 

i would drink the juice in the 

shells and then i walked back. i 

walked and walked until i came 

into the community, people were 

shocked and pleased to see 

me. i was covered in mud and 

scratches. 

susan WanJi WanJi 

edward (malati) yunupingu 

(b 1979) 

country: yirrkala, east arnhem land (f), 

warriyuwu, bathurst island (m) 


dance: yirrikapayi (crocodile) 

Edward Yunupingu is a talented carver. Born 

to a Tiwi mother and a Yolngu father from 

Galiwinku, East Arnhem Land, Charles 

Yunupingu, Edward is proud to have lived on 

the Tiwi Islands all his life. Edward started 

working as an artist at Tiwi Design, Bathurst 

Island after returning from attending school 

in Darwin, and later moved to Pirlangimpi 

with his partner Natalie Puantulura, the 

granddaughter of Jean Baptiste Apuatimi, to 

paint and carve at Munupi Arts and Crafts. 

Edward has been exhibiting since 2008 and 

has work held in the Australian Museum 

Collection and the Brian Tucker Collection. 

new eve pic in 



new eve pic in -

Tiwi layout v2 ch 16 Munupi.pdf

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