Tiwi layout v2 ch 16 Munupi.pdf

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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
changed layout a little
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
swapped pic of robert to profile>
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
added this pic here and more in his profile
dropped colourful vase
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262 PirlangimPi: munuPi arts and Crafts
PirlangimPi: munuPi arts and Crafts 263