– CATALOGUE ESSAY: WARNARRINGA JAPARRA AMINTIYA JAPALINGA
“WARNARRINGA JAPARRA AMINTIYA JAPALINGA: SUN, MOON & STARS” IS AN EXHIBITION THAT BRINGS TOGETHER THREE JILAMARA ARTISTS ACROSS GENERATIONS, SHARING CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE THROUGH THE PROCESS OF MAKING CONTEMPORARY ARTWORKS.
Established artists Timothy Cook and Conrad Tipungwuti present a suite of impressive new earth pigment paintings on linen that draw on the circular motifs and collective visual language of Tiwi Kulama ceremony. Alongside these bold gestural works, young emerging artist Walter Brooks exhibits a collection of figurative carvings based on the characters of the Tiwi creation stories and the first Pukumani ceremony.
Together the works in the exhibition offer an insight into the long-standing living culture of Tiwi art making and ceremonial practice on the islands.
It is no surprise that the two main Tiwi ceremonies are connected to the cycle of life. Firstly, the Pukumani is a mourning ceremony believed to put the spirits of deceased family members to rest on Murrakupupuni [Country].
As Jilamara artist and cultural leader Pedro Wonaeamirri has written:
Pukumani is more a celebration, more a goodbye ceremony, like, ‘Goodbye, see you next time in your Country.'1”
— Pedro Wonaeamirri
Alternatively, Kulama is often described as a coming-of-age ceremony – a celebration of life and the passing of knowledge to the next generation, often symbolised by the giving of an adult name to the young people present.
Although no longer practiced often, Kulama was historically held late in the wet season. The ceremony time is signified by the appearance of a large and impressive halo or ring around japarra (the moon).
Kulama painting – that’s for the moon and stars. Japarra – moon and stars mean it’s dark. Dark, but bright too. Full moon.2”
— Timothy Cook
The ceremony itself is held over three days and three nights on a prepared ground of large concentric circles. In the middle of the circles is a fire and towards the end of the ceremony yams are prepared for eating. In reference to both the moon, yam and the ceremonial area, large concentric circular motifs in Tiwi art often symbolise Kulama.
Kulama painting, that’s our initiation, that mean Kulama painting – a song about dancing, you know, around…potato they cook them up. Make a fire and cook them up and roast them. Keep culture strong and people make it strong, you know. People make culture and they make it strong. They do that in here you know.3”
— Timothy Cook
As gestural compositions of kurluwukari, pwanga, marlipinyini [circles, dots and lines] in turtiyanginari [locally sourced earth pigments], Cook and Tipungwuti’s paintings are both formal representations of japarra [the moon], japalinga [stars] and warnarringa [the sun] but also what the Kulama ceremony stands for – the coming together of people in a circle over days and nights to share knowledge across generations through singing and ceremonial preparation. As Wonaeamirri recalls of Kulama he has taken part in:
Japarra, warnarringa and the circle on the ground all important for Kulama. Three days and nights – Friday, Saturday and Sunday are the ceremony. No little children at the Kulama. No dancing, just calling out to the ancestors, each direction. This way, that way. Just singing, calling out and crawling in a circle calling out and sharing stories from parlingarri [old times]. At the end of the Kulama, on Sunday we eat, then Monday morning everyone comes in, the children and old people. The cooked yam is mixed with red ochre and put on their bodies. Sometimes people have one side of yam for eating and one side for mixing with red ochre and rubbing on the body.4”
— Pedro Wonaeamirri
The bold concentric circles of Cook and Tipungwuti’s paintings draw on both celestial imagery of warnarringa [sun], japarra [moon] and the late wet season halo, japalinga [stars] and the circular ceremony ground where their family have come together to sing, share knowledge, celebrate life and prepare yam for Kulama over many generations. As Brian Farmer past Executive Board member of Jilamara and custodian of the Muluwurri Museum has said of Tiwi painting:
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My people didn’t have written text…it’s all done by painting. The story, like, it goes on from there…through painting is a way of remembering.5”
— Brian Farmer
Alternatively, emerging artist Walter Brooks brings a different contribution to this group exhibition. A much younger member of Jilamara Arts, he has chosen to continue the long-standing practice of Tiwi figurative ironwood carving. Referencing the story of the first Tiwi family Purukuparli, Wai’yai, baby Jinani and Purukuparli’s brother Japarra, these works tell the story of the first Pukumani ceremony and the coming of mortality to the Tiwi people:
The story of Purukuparli, his wife and son, is important to Tiwi life and culture. It teaches us lessons about life and is also the beginning of our ceremonial culture. Since that time when Purukuparli danced his dead son into the sea at Yimpinari, the Tiwi people have come together for Pukumani ceremony – to sing, dance and farewell the spirit of our family so they can be at rest back on Country.6”
— Pedro Wonaeamirri
In a full circle after the death of Jinani, Purukuparli’s brother Japarra ascends into the skies to become the moon. When full in the night sky, the scars on his brow from fighting his brother are still visible on the Luna surface and each year in March/April he continues to call for the start of the Kulama with that impressive celestial halo.
The concentric circles of Kulama that are front and centre of this exhibition, represent the coming together of Tiwi people in a ceremonial space to acknowledge ancestry and share living culture with younger generations. In a time dominated by so much sorry business and an uneasy political climate, now it seems more important than ever to celebrate the coming together of intergenerational groups of artists like this to learn and share through the process of art-making.
WILL HEATHCOTE, JILAMARA ARTS & CRAFTS COORDINATOR
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Wonaeamirri, Pedro, “Pukumani: letting the world know” in Tony Tuckson, ed. Dennise Mimmocchi, Art Gallery of New South Wales: Sydney, 2018. P. 195.
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In conversation with the artist, Jilamara Studios 2022.
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In conversation with the artist, Jilamara Studios 2022.
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Pedro Wonaeamirri in conversation with Jilamara Coordinator Will Heathcote, Milikapiti, May, 2023.
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Brian Farmer quoted in Judith Ryan, “Poetics of Intimacy: The Art of Kitty Kantilla” Kitty Kantilla, NGV: Melbourne. p.79.
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Pedro Wonaeamirri, “Purukuparli Story”, One Foot on the Ground, One Foot in the Water, LaTrobe Art Institute: Bendigo, p. 78.