Parlingarri Amintiya Ningani Awungarra

We want people to recognise how strong our culture is. Glimpse how beautiful and complex our culture is, our families, our Countries, our history, our future. We adapt, we evolve, we change, we create as we write into the future.

— Colin Heenan-Puruntatameri

Old and new. Here and now. This major survey of contemporary art from the Tiwi Islands celebrates artists working at Jilamara Arts & Craft Association in Milikapiti. It points to the long-standing expression of cultural knowledge and innovation emanating from this important art centre since its establishment in 1989.

Presented across both levels of UNSW Galleries, the exhibition showcases the breadth of work made at Jilamara Arts—from ironwood carvings to ochre paintings on stringybark, paper and canvas, printmaking, and video. Together, these works reveal the unique visual, performative, and material culture of the Tiwi people, centred around ceremonial body painting designs, clan totems, and Creation stories.

All Tiwi people are connected by a rich cosmology and complex system of inheritance, receiving their yiminga (skin group or tribe) from their mother, and their yoyi (dance) and murrakupupuni (Country) from their father. These connections are expressed through song, dance, body painting and its designs known as jilamara, which are central to the kulama (coming of age) and pukumani (mourning) ceremonies. In these events, bodies are painted to camouflage the living from spirits, and tutini (poles) and tunga (baskets) are decorated using locally sourced ochres. Contemporaneously, markings on the body are also painted on other surfaces, making new connections between elements of Tiwi language and culture.

‘Parlingarri Amintiya Ningani Awungarra’ features newly commissioned and recent works by Walter Brooks, Kaye Brown, Johnathon World Peace Bush, Timothy Cook, Raelene Kerinauia Lampuwatu, Michelle Pulatuwayu Woody Minnapinni, Arthurina Moreen, Janice Murray Pungautiji, Matthew Freddy Puruntatameri, Patrick Freddy Puruntatameri, Conrad Kamilowra Tipungwuti, Columbiere Tipungwuti, Mickey Fogarty Wilson, Dino Wilson and Pedro Wonaeamirri.

The exhibition also pays tribute to the late senior women of Jilamara Arts whose innovation and adaptations of jilamara were instrumental in raising awareness of Tiwi art—Kutuwulumi Purawarrumpatu (Kitty Kantilla), Maryanne Mungatopi, Mary Magdalene Tipungwuti and Taracarijimo Freda Warlapinni—including works from the art centre's Muluwurri Museum.

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Curated by José Da Silva with Jilamara Arts

Image: Dino Wilson, Warnarringa (sun) 2021. Locally sourced ochres on linen. Image courtesy of Jilamara Arts & Craft