CATALOGUE | Auction 3 December 2019 | Indigenous Fine Art

COOEE ART

Mar ketPlace

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AUCTION | Indigenous Fine Art Tuesday 3 December 2019

COVER IMAGE | LOT #25 Emily Kame Kngwarreye | Kame - Summer Awelye | 1992 synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen 121 x 208 cm | EST $200,000 - EST $250,000 2

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AUCTION | Indigenous Fine Art Tuesday 3 December 2019 | 7pm 326 Oxford Street Paddington NSW 2021 Gala Preview Thursday 28 November 2019 | 6-8pm Auction Preview 29 November - 2 December 2019 | 10-6pm Tuesday 3 December 2019 | 10-2pm

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ADRIAN NEWSTEAD OAM | Founding Director - Senior Specialist Adrian Newstead OAM established Cooee Art in 1981 and has organised and curated more than 400 exhibitions of Indigenous art since that time. A former President of the Indigenous Art Trade Association and Director of Aboriginal Tourism Australia he became the Head of Aboriginal Art for Lawson~Menzies in 2003, and Managing Director of Menzies Art Brands until 2008. Adrian is an Aboriginal art consultant, dealer, author and art commentator, based in Bondi, NSW. He has more that 35 years experience working with Aboriginal and Australian Contemporary art.

MIRRI LEVEN | Executive Director Having gained degrees in International Development and Fine Arts, and a Masters in Art Administration from the University of NSW College of Fine Art, Mirri undertook fieldwork in the Solomon Islands and India whilst acting as the international photo editor for a London based travel magazine. She joined Cooee Art in 2007 and was appointed the Gallery Manager in 2010. In 2013, she left Australia to take up a role as director of a contemporary art gallery in London. Mirri has been a director of Cooee Art since 2015. She plans its exhibition program and project development, and is a founder of its auction arm, the Cooee Art MarketPlace.

EMMA LENYSZYN | Auction Specialist Educated in Fine Art at RMIT, Emma joined Cooee Art in 2016 as Gallery Manager Paddington and is now the Auction Specialist for the bi-annual Cooee Art MarketPlace Auctions. She has a long history of employment in the arts including working at international institutions, commercial galleries and private collections. Her favorite artist is Emily Kngwarreye.

ERIKA GAN | Auction Administrator Erika was born in mainland China and has lived in Australia for the past 6 years. She holds a Bachelor of Business major in Marketing and a Master of Art Curating from the University of Sydney. She joined Cooee Art in September 2019 as Auction Administrator. Erika has undertaken an internship at Museums and Galleries of NSW and worked for Bonhams Australia. Erika also produces content for bloggers based in Shanghai, China, and is passionate about introducing Australian Aboriginal art to overseas audiences.

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Cooee Art Marketplace is the most effective, informative and attractive way to buy and sell Indigenous art

We understand that Australian Indigenous art is a vital cultural legacy and believe that it is best exhibited and offered for sale by those who are passionately committed to it.

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COOEE ART MARKETPLACE AUCTION | DECEMBER 2019 I am delighted to welcome you to the second Cooee Art MarketPlace indigenous fine art auction for 2019.

This dynamic multi-vendor auction features 99 lots valued at $1.0 million to $1.3 million.

Our cover lot is a truly spectacular work by Emily Kame Kngwarreye entitled Kame-Summer Awelye, 1992 measuring 121 x 208 cm (Lot 25) is one of those exceptional paintings that were produced at Delmore Downs between November 1991 and February 1992. In an atmosphere of overwhelming humidity, accompanied by hot northerly winds, the anticipation of rain and on-going ceremonial activity enlivened the spiritual atmosphere amongst the female custodians at Utopia. In this painting, radiant fields of yellow and pink dots cluster and trace across the surface, varying in hue and density.

This sumptuous work is alive and numinous, reflecting this heightened sense of spiritual awakening.

London art dealer Rebecca Hossack met Clifford Possum in the creek bed in Alice Springs in 1989 and invited him to exhibit his work the following year. Eight months later, dressed in a top hat and tails from Moss Bros, a paintbrush characteristically threaded into his hatband, and tennis shoes painted with Possum Dreamings, he had a private audience with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip. He subsequently painted two works in London, one of which he gifted to the Queen and is now in her private collection at Buckingham Palace. Another, begun with his family in Alice Springs and completed in London is his 296 x 128cm, Untitled 1989/90 painting, depicting aspects of ceremonial activities at Mount Allan.

The work created in synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen is included in this sale with an estimate of $70,00090,000 (Lot 72). The painting toured through the UK to galleries including the Barbican and the Australian High Commission in London during the early 1990s.

There are 12 superb bark paintings peppered throughout this offering. The most significant of these is a very rare example by the acknowledged master of Wandjina painting, Alec Mingelmanganu (Lot 15). Works on bark by this artist are rare, with only five having ever appeared at public sale. One rare bark by this artist sold in Sotheby’s London 2015 sale for $187,000.

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The work in this sale, which has been in the same family since it was originally purchased at the YMCA shop in Derby in 1975, is modestly estimated at $60,000 – 80,000. Of the remaining barks, two particularly stand out. A lovely rendition of a plains kangaroo by the renowned cave painter Peter Maralwanga (Lot 13) and an exquisite bark depicting Macassan traders by Mungurrawuy Yunupingu (Lot 12). These carry estimates of $12,000 - 15,000 and $9,000-12,000, respectively.

These are just a taste of the lovely pieces that the Cooee Art MarketPlace team have managed to collect from regions throughout Australia. There are works on canvas, bark paintings, sculptures, and artefacts by artists of renown, ranging in value from $1,000 to $250,000.

You can discover a wealth of information on each of the major artists included in this catalogue, as well as detailed information about the content and subjects of the artworks, on our Cooee Art website www.cooeeart.com.au/marketplace/auction/1210/ I am grateful to the excellent team we have built at Cooee Art MarketPlace and for the good will, faith, and support that so many people have expressed toward our endeavours. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible during the viewings and sale.

Adrian Newstead October 2019

“ I am of the opinion that

the Australian Aborigine is probably the best artist in Australia. The Aborigine has a wonderful, dreaming philosophy which all Australian artists should have �

Sidney Nolan in The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, December 17 and 23, 1949

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LOT #1 Sally (Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda) Gabori (1924 - 2015) Dibirdibi Country, 2010 152 x 102 cm synthetic polymer paint on canvas EST $8,000 - 10,000 PROVENANCE Mornington Island Art Centre, Qld Cat No. 5775-L-SG-0410 Private Collection, Qld Accompanied by original Mornington Island Art documentation 8

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Dibirdibi Country conveys the story places of Dibirdibi, the Rock Cod ancestor, and charts his creative journey along the Bentinck Island coastline. These stories belonged to Saby’s late husband, Pat, whose traditional name was also Dibirdibi.

This and other late-career paintings by Gabori are increasingly abstract in nature but retain certain representational elements crucial to mapping her country, including the prominent Kaiadilt rock-walled fish traps.

LOT #2 Emily Kame Kngwarreye (1910 -1996) Yam Dreaming (red dots) edition 28/50, 1995 76 x 57 cm (paper) 102 x 80 cm (framed) limited edition linocut on paper EST $4,000 - 6,000 PROVENANCE Workshop conducted at Delmore Downs, NT Print Maker, Theo Tremblay Editioned Studio One, ACT Private Collection, NSW This linocut marked an important turning point in the artist’s imagery. Almost immediately after creating it she began largescale line paintings eschewing the dotted landscapes that she had created up to that moment in time. These paintings culminated

in her masterpiece, Big Yam Dreaming in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria.

Emily’s earliest ‘straight line paintings’ stemmed from a workshop in January 1994, during which she worked with master printmaker Theo Tremblay at Studio One in Canberra.

The image was painted onto the linolium. Later the printmakers faithfully cut around the lines and published the print.

Emily participated with her clanswomen each year in the Yam Dreaming ceremonies that pay homage to the spirit of the yam INDIGENOUS FINE ART

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LOT #3 Daniel Walbidi (1983 - ) Kirriwirri, 2015 44 x 56 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $6,000 - 8,000 PROVENANCE Short Street Gallery, WA Cat No. 830463 Corporate Collection, Vic Though his heritage is Yulparija, Daniel Walbidi was born in the remote West Australian coastal community of Bidyadanga.

Severe drought and encroaching mining and grazing developments during the 1960s had pushed the Yulparija people coastwards. Along with several other desert tribes, they found refuge at Le Grange Mission (Bidyadanga) and settled amongst the Karajarri, the saltwater estuary dwellers there.

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Daniel Walbidi interprets landscape in his country as striking abstract topographies full of life and movement.While concerned with keeping his culture strong, his works contain striking motifs inspired by the modern world and contemporary art. “We still paint the land,” he says, “but in an evolving way.”

Kirriwirri is a jila, or permanent waterhole, near Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route in the Great Sandy Desert. It is important to many other family and clan groups because it has water that never dries out even in the driest of seasons.

LOT #4 Freddie Timms (1946 - 2017) Killarney Bore, 2000 80 x 100 cm natural earth pigments with acrylic binder on Belgian linen EST $6,000 - 8,000 PROVENANCE Jirrawun Arts, NSW Cat No. FT 4 2000-109 Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by original Jirrawun Arts documentation In a career that spanned more than 20 years, Freddy Timms became known for aerial map-like visions of country that were less concerned with ancestral associations as with tracing the responses and refuges of the Gidja people as they encountered the ruthlessness and brutality of colonisation.

This picture shows an area just to the east of Turkey Creek known as Killarney Bore. There was once an old station house there which was later abandoned. The small black dot is the bore that is still in use. The artist used to water horses and cattle there when he worked as a stockman for Mabel Downs Station. The rounded black part near the bore represents a little round hill just nearby. A narrow creek passes the bore and meets another in the lower part of the picture. The gap the stockmen used to ride through with their horses on the way to Texas Downs is shown at the top. It was also a traditional walking track in the time before the arrival of the Europeans.

The pink area represents another little hill. The large black area represents a massive cliff called Ngangamany that was often painted by artist Queenie McKenzie.

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LOT #5 Sally Liki Nanii (c. 1930 - 2016 ) Yugugree, 2003 180 x 65 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $3,500 - 4,500 PROVENANCE Short Street Gallery, WA Cat No. 2855 Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by original Short St Gallery documentation Sally Liki Nanii was born in Kirriwirri and did not begin painting until 2003 when she joined the Yulaprtija Artists and her works were exhibited widely for only a short period. In 2007 she suffered a stroke and was unable to continue making art, yet during her productive period she participated in a number of important group exhibitions at some of the best commercial galleries and her works were collected by the National Gallery of Victoria and several prestigious private collectors.

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LOT #6 John Mawurndjul (1952 - ) Milmilngkan Site, 2007 114 x 70 cm natural earth pigments on stringy bark EST $9,000 - 12,000 PROVENANCE Maningrida Arts and Culture, NT Cat No. 4113/07 Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by original Maningrida Arts & Culture documentation EXHIBITED Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW, Contemporary Aboriginal Art, August - September 2019

John Mawurndjul lives at Milmilngkan. Here, the power of Ngalyod, the Rainbow Serpent, lies underneath the water of a billabong. This painting, the Mardayin Design, displays the complex composition of Mawurndjul’s intricate rarrk skills, conveying the power of the place.

Ngalyod is very important in Kuninjku cosmology and is associated with the creation of all sacred sites, djang, in Kuninjku clan lands. Here stories relate how creator or ancestral beings travelled across the country and angered Ngalyod who swallowed them and returned to the earth to create the site.

Born at Mumeka, located near the Mann River in Central Arnhem Land, an important site for the Kurulk clan, John Mawurndjul was taught to paint by his elder brother Jimmy Njiminjuma and his uncle Peter Marralwanga.

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LOT #7 Bill Tjapaltjarri Whiskey (c.1920 - 2008) Rockholes and Country, near the Olga’s, 2006 44 x 129 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $5,000 - 7,000 PROVENANCE Watiyawarnu Arts, NT Cat No. 77-06138 Private Collection, NSW Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri was a Pitjantjatjara man born in the 1920s at Pirupa Akla, country located near the Olgas and to the west of Ayers Rock. By the time he was a young man, most of Whiskey’s family had passed away. Many of his people had begun moving towards Haasts Bluff mission, about 250 kms to the north-east. Whiskey joined a group of people who were about to make that journey. No one had yet seen white people, and when they arrived at the mission, the desert people were completely naked.

Whiskey, along with some of the others, decided not to stay. as they were frightened. Their fear came from the belief that the white people were Mamu, or bad spirit people. They eventually arrived at an area near Areyonga, where a white missionary Pastor called Patupirri had established a camp. In time, Whiskey moved back to Haasts Bluff mission, and it was here that he met his wife Colleen Nampitjinpa, never to return to his home country.

Whiskey was a traditional healer, and people would come from afar to be treated by him. He took a job as cook for the contract fencers and mustering crew. He came to be called Whiskers, owing to his long white beard, and the name eventually evolved into Whiskey. He began painting in 2004.

The main images in his works are the Rockholes near Pirupa, Ayers Rock, and the story of his own journeys to Areyonga and Haasts Bluff. Whiskey was a very traditional man with an extremely jovial personality.

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LOT #8 Ginger Munduwalawala Riley (c.1936 - 2002) Angry Bulukbun, c.1995 51 x 71.5 cm watercolour and gouache on paper EST $3,500 - 4,500 PROVENANCE Alcaston Gallery, Vic Cat No. AK5887 Corporate Collection, Vic Ginger Riley was born c.1937 near Maria Lagoon by the Limmen Bight River in Southern Arnhem Land. Riley’s paintings drew their inspiration from his mother’s country, the area surrounding four pyramidal hills, the Four Arches, some 45 kilometres inland from the Gulf of Carpentaria on the Limmen Bight River. Ginger’s iconography was informed by the sequence of events that took place there.

This work depicts the island of Yumunkuni (Beatrice Island) which was created by Ngak Ngak the Sea Eagle, the artist’s totem. Garimala the ancestral serpent, Bulukbun the firebreathing snake, and Ngak Ngak witnessed the creation of the Four Arches. Their depiction in the scenes such as this work acts as a metaphor for the artist witnessing the creative acts of his ancestors. In this painting Bulukbun comes out of the sea to devour those who had offended him by performing a ritual incorrectly during the re-enactment of this part of the ceremony.The surrounding V shaped decoration is derived from body paint designs. The V shape is painted on each shoulder pointing to the nipple.

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LOT #9 Butcher Joe Nangan (c.1902 - 1989) A Suite of Eight Drawings, 1981 pencil and watercolour on paper

Each artwork is accompanied by a document relating to the content of the work and tapes of the artist speaking and singing the related songs.

Butcher Joe Nangan spent his life acquiring the ritual knowledge of the Nyikina people. In 1955, Nangan began producing beautifully executed pencil and watercolour pictures of flora, fauna and mythological spirit beings in a Western naturalistic style. He drew from a range of historical events in which elements of the supernatural and spirit worlds were thought to have entered the lives of known mortals. Rai (spirit beings), guardians of the plants and animals, bearers of the spirits of children, were also a favourite topic. The Aboriginal community believed that Nangan interacted with these little, somewhat mischievous, yet helpful, beings, and that they were the source of his spiritual knowledge and power.’*

EXHIBITED Aboriginal Traditional Arts, Perth Gallery, WA, 1981

* Kleinert, S. and Neale, M., The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2000, p. 658

EST $9,000 - 12,000 PROVENANCE Commissioned by Mary Macha for Aboriginal Traditional Arts, WA Deutscher and Hackett, Important Fine Art + Aboriginal Art, Sydney, December 2015, Lot No. 161 Private Collection, NSW

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(a) Mayata –The Pelican, 22.5 x 22.5 cm (b) Mirutu Mirutu-The Messenger, 22 x 25 cm (c) Myimere –The Song Man, 22.5 x 26 cm (d) Tuurru, 19.5 x 23.5 cm “A bird of the Patjari section, he is a doctor, and is shown in both his human and bird form. He brings news and give notice of death occurring among kinsfolk. He possesses important ritual objects and songs for healing ritual pain.” (e) Mutjunan - Mythical Traveller, 21 x 26 cm “Mutjunan travelled east from Broome through to Paradise Station. His journey was stopped by an earthquake at Mutjunan, where he was transformed to stone.”

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(f) Tarrbai And The Goanna, 22 x 26 cm “The Patjari section woman, Tarrbai, has echidnas for dogs. The goanna is going past her to his hibernation hole.” (g) Ngalyak-The Skink, 22 x 26.5 cm “Two lizards at Mantakarkapu meet up with Paningburr, a black and white snake. The skinks belong to the Burungu section; the snake to the Karimba section.” (h) Pirra Pirra-The Dog Man, 24 x 23 cm.

“This rain spirit of the dog is now a rock on the road to Fitzroy Crossing. In the early days the rock was an increase site for puppies. Old men would perform the ceremony to maintain the dingo population in selected areas. Pirrapirra belongs to the Karimba section.”

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LOT #10 Eubena Nampitjin (1924 - 2013) Ladingburra Soak in the Great Sandy Desert, 1995 80 x 120 cm synthetic polymer paint on canvas EST $3,000 - 5,000 PROVENANCE Warlayirti Artists, WA Cat No. 420/95 Chapman Gallery, ACT Private Collection, Tas Accompanied by original Warlayirti Artists documentation

LOT #11 Djambawa Marawilli (1953 - ) Djambatj, 2005 32 x 71 cm natural earth pigment on stringy bark EST $2,500 - 3,500 PROVENANCE Buku Larrngay Mulka, NT Cat No. 2548U Annandale Galleries, NSW Cat No. BLA280 Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by original Buku Larrngay Mulka documentation 18 |

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LOT #12 Mungurrawuy Yunupingu (c. 1907 - 1979) Macassan Traders, c.1968 108 x 37 cm natural earth pigments on stringy bark EST $9,000 - 12,000 PROVENANCE Acquired direct from the artist in Arnhem Land during the mid to late 1960s Private Collection, Vic Leonard Joel, April 2006, Lot. 664 Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Vic Cat No. 260287 Private Collection, Vic EXHIBITED Telling the Stories, From the Kimberley to Yirrkala, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne, May - June 2012, Cat No. 44 Munggarawuy Yunupingu was the leader of the Gumatj clan of the Yolgnu people in north-east Arnhem Land. He was one of the leaders in the Yolgnu fight for land rights when tenure of their land was threatened by mining interests in the 1960s and 1970s, and was a contributor to the Yirrkala bark petition.

Munggarawuy was one of the first artists to produce bark paintings for sale to the missionary Wilbur Chaseling in 1935, and later contributed to Dr. Stuart Scougall’s collection at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. He helped to develop the episodic narrative paintings characteristic of Yolgnu art from the 1960s to the 1980s and was one of the Yirritja moiety leaders who contributed to the Yirrkala Church Panels*.

For centuries before the white man came to Australia, the Macassans used to trade with Aboriginals and collect and smoke trepang on the beaches of North East Arnhem Land.

Munggarawuy spoke of the Macassans with respect and affection. Before they visited the far north only stone axes and knives were known to Aboriginals. Dugout canoes carved out of a single tree trunk were also unknown. The usual method of sea travel was a canoe made of stringy bark. * S. Kleinert and M. Neal (eds.), The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2000, p.744

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LOT #13 Peter Marralwanga (1916 - 1987) Kolobarr the Kangaroo, c.1973 88 x 51 cm natural earth pigments on stingy bark EST $12,000 - 15,000 PROVENANCE Painted in Western Arnhem Land, NT Mary Macha, WA Private Collection, Vic EXHIBITED Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art: A Myriad of Dreaming, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, 18 September - 1st October 1989 Westpac Gallery,Victorian Art Centre, 4th - 22and October 1989 Design Warehouse, Surry Hills, NSW, 21st November 1989 -1990 Telling the Stories, From the Kimberley to Yirrkala, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne, May - June 2012, Cat No. 23 20 |

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LITERATURE Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art: A Myriad of Dreaming, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, 1989, 18 September - 1st October 1989, p. 28 pl.17 Peter Marralwanga, was a student of David Yirawala (1903-1976), and in turn influenced a whole generation of Kuninjku artists, including John Mawurndjul. Marralwanga pioneered the Western Arnhem Land style of painting with its plain unadorned background, X-ray view of the internal organs, and varied cross-hatched clan patterns (rarrk) to create new and eye-catching effects. This work is a perfect example of the technique. The bark is dominated by the large shape of a plains kangaroo in an eye catching pose.

Two dancing mimi spirits appear as part of a ceremony.

They were the original inhabitants of Western Arnhem Land and taught hunting and fishing skills and gave power totems to Marralwanga’s forbears.

LOT #14 Queenie McKenzie Nakarra (1930 - 1998) Texas Downs Country, 1995 90 x 118 cm natural earth pigments and resins on Belgian linen

Queenie McKenzie was born c.1930 at the Old Texas station on the Ord River in the north-west of Western Australia. As a young girl, she cooked for the stockmen, tending and riding horses, and journeying as they drove cattle across the vast pastoral region of the north.

PROVENANCE Neil McLeod Fine Art Studio, Vic Private Collection, NSW thence by decent

She would often return in her paintings to the country of her youth. Her birthplace and its geographical location in relation to Blackfella’s Creek; the large termite mound that was small when she was a child but grew bigger and bigger throughout her life; the hills of Rosewood Station where she had worked as a cook for the Aboriginal stockmen; Old Texas Station where men would collect white quartz used for spear heads; Corella, Echidna, and Bowerbird Dreaming sites and many more.

EXHIBITED Mingmadia - The Art of Queenie McKenzie, Cooee Art Gallery NSW, March 2009

Queenie McKenzie was, and posthumously still is, recognised as a spiritual and cultural icon, whose commitment to art has left an indelible impact on Australian history and culture.

EST $12,000 - 15,000

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LOT #15 Alec Mingelmanganu (c. 1905 - 1981) Wandijina, c.1976 130 x 65 cm (irregular) natural earth pigments on bark with cane and bush string frame EST $60,000 - 80,000 PROVENANCE YWCA shop in Derby, WA 1976 Private Collection, WA Thence by descent Alec Mingelmanganu lived at the former Benedictine Mission at Kalumbaru and became one of a select group that began painting there around 1975. His images of Wandjina with pointed shoulders mimicked the depictions of Wandjina that he saw on a trip to Lawley River with anthropologist Ian Crawford in the late 1970s. His motivation to perpetuate the power of the Wandjina through his art was not dissimilar to the way in which regular restorations of rock paintings were an integral responsibility for many Kimberley tribes, including the Woonambal to whom Alec Mingelmanganu belonged. The Wandjina, spirits who preside over the rains and the unborn spirits of children, are found on the walls of caves, where they are said to have transformed into paintings upon their death.

Thus the Aboriginal custodians believed that they did not create the Wandjina paintings, but inherited them from the spirits who first made them. Not all Wandjina look alike. Each clan is thought to be responsible for only a single Wandjina and it is said that there were so many of them that almost the whole Kimberley is criss-crossed by their paths.

Mingelmanganu is considered to be the master of this art form.

His Wandjina are highly distinctive and unique in proportion, composition and tonal quality. In a number of his largest works the full-length figure of a Wandjina is decorated in lines of dots similar to body painting designs, intended to give a visual brightness which express the spiritual essence of the ancestral beings.

This painting, thought to be one of the artist’s earliest works, was created on a sheet of stringy bark. The arched reinforcement, unique to paintings from Kalumburu, is achieved by tying and sewing a length of the cane-like supplejack vine to the perimeter with lengths of bush-string that has been spun from the inner bark of the red-flowered Kurrajong. The peaked shoulders and halo that surrounds the head are characteristic of Mingelmanganu’s work. The finely dashed, red in-filling seen on the body represents falling rain.

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LOT #16 Ronnie Tjampitjinpa (c. 1943 - ) Tingari, 1996 88 x 120.5 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $12,000 - 15,000 PROVENANCE Papunya Tula Artists, NT Cat No. RT9607137 Private Collection, Qld 24 |

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Ronnie Tjampitjinpa walked with his family out of the West Australian desert and settled into life at the tumultuous and crowded settlement of Papunya at 13. He was in his late 20s at the dawn of the Desert painting movement. His tribal initiation into ceremonial knowledge, along with his familiarity with country and sacred sites stood him in good stead when, as one of the youngest painters, he was tutored by Old Mick Tjakamarra. As senior custodian of the Honey Ant Dreaming, Tjakamarra had played an instrumental role in initiating the Papunya art movement.

LOT #17 Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri (1926 - 1998) Dingo Dreaming at Marnpi Rockhole, 1992 91 x 61 cm 94 x 64 cm (framed) synthetic polymer paint on canvas EST $2,000 - 4,000 PROVENANCE Field Collected Papunya Community, 1992 Private Collection, NT Sotheby’s, Melbourne, 02/10/1994, Lot No. 115 Gallerie Australis, SA Private Collection, Tas

LITERATURE Cf. Caruana, W. Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson, New York, 1993 p. 114 and 117, pl. 98 for a larger related example depicting the same subject matter and iconography that was the winner of the 8th National Aboriginal Art Award in 1991 and is held in the collection of the Museum and Art Galleries of The Northern Territory, Darwin INDIGENOUS FINE ART

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LOT #18 Lydia Balbal (c.1958 - ) Murga, 2007 117 x 91 cm synthetic polymer paint on canvas EST $4,000 - 6,000 PROVENANCE Short St Gallery, WA Cat No. 24237 Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by original Short Street Gallery documentation According to Lydia, “Snake in this rockhole. He underground, he quiet one. This big rockhole. This good hunting place we dig for eggs. This one desert side. This mummy and father country. This Mangala country.�

LOT #19 Jimmy Donegan (1940 - ) Pukara, 2005 151 x 98 cm synthetic polymer paint on canvas EST $6,000 - 8,000 PROVENANCE Papulankutja Artists, WA Cat No. 05-979 Aboriginal and Pacific Art, NSW Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by original Papulankutja Artists documentation Jimmy Donegan was born at Yanpan, a rockhole near Ngatuntjarra Bore and grew up in the bush around Blackstone and Mantamaru (Jamieson) in Western Australia.

This painting shows the Pukara rock hole and surrounding country. The creation story for this painting reveals that two water snakes (really men) were trying to pass through the Piuyi Mountains near Warburton. They threw a magic boomerang that broke the mountain in two before travelling on to Pukara.

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LOT #20 Jimmy Baker (1915 - 2010) Kanpi, 2007 105 x 125 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $8,000 - 12,000 PROVENANCE Tjungu Palya, SA Cat No. TPJB07326 Marshall Arts, SA Private Collection, NSW Jimmy Baker was born in the Western Desert at a rockhole called Malumpa, a location close to the present-day community of Kanpi in north-west South Australia. He was one of the most senior and highly respected men in the APY Lands.

Baker was a great storyteller and a highly respected ngangkari (healer). An exceptional craftsman, able to create traditional implements of the highest standard, he began painting in 2004 and produced a relatively small body of work.

Like other senior men, Baker painted stories in a way that clearly defined significant sites or paths etched in the landscape by ancestral beings. These sites are multi-layered, with physical, geographical, spiritual, and ceremonial connotations.

Jimmy Baker’s work encapsulates the essence of culture, country and Indigenous pride. He had a rare artistic gift and was one of the most important artists from the Central and Western Desert region.

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LOT #21 Jimmy Nerrimah (1924 - 2013) Nagalturrurangu, 2002 61 x 91 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $2,500 - 3,500 PROVENANCE Mangkaja Art Centre, WA Cat No. PC267/02 Art Place Gallery, WA Private Collection, New York, USA 28 |

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Jimmy Nerrimah was born in the desert and grew up moving with his family throughout Walmajarri country from one waterhole to the next.

He was in his late teens when his father brought him to the station country to escape a very large fire that was burning in his country around Tapu. He went through law at Lumpu and lived in the bush until, in his sixties, he began working on Nerrimah Station. He began painting at the beginning of the 1990s.

In this painting, Nerrimah has depicted the Jila (living water) at Nagalturrurangu with jilji (sand dunes) all around.

LOT #22 Boxer Milner (c.1934 - 2008) Purkitji, 2002 105 x 75 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $6,000 - 8,000 PROVENANCE Warlayirti Artists, WA Cat No. 1084/02 Short St Gallery, WA Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by original Warlayirti Artists documentation

Born south-west of Billiluna near Sturt Creek c.1934, Boxer Milner was one of a small number of people who lived in the transition zone between the desert and the river country of the South Kimberley region. This is Tjaru land, where the country and vegetation move from flat and featureless rolling spinifex plains to flood plains with enormous river channels and permanent water holes. Here the yearly cycles of flood and dry create swamps with abundant bird life, through which runs Purkitji, or Sturt Creek.

In this work we see two places where Cranya Creek crosses Sturt Creek. The white lines represent tributaries while the orange is the dry country known as Njama Njama. During the ‘wet’ this country floods and the blue areas become swamps.

There are two soakwaters near this important place in Boxer’s traditional country.

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LOT #23 Sally (Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda) Gabori (1924 - 2015) River at my Father’s Country, 2008 152 x 101 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $8,000 - 10,000 PROVENANCE Mornington Island Arts & Craft, Qld Cat No. 3165-L-SG-0508 Private Collection, Qld Accompanied by original Mornington Island documentation 30 |

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Sally Gabori’s paintings are essentially concerned with meaningful sites, known through the ar tist’s intimate association during a lifetime spent on Bentinck Island.

These sites are associated with tidal movement, seasonal change, major climatic events such as drought, and flood, and the presence of plants, sea birds, animals, and aquatic life. Gabori was mindful of the ebb and flow of life over all the seasons that made up her long life.

LOT #24 Rammey Ramsey (1935 - ) My Country - Warlawoon, 2007 122 x 135 cm powder pigment and acrylic binder on canvas EST $9,000 - 12,000 PROVENANCE Jirrawun Arts, WA Cat No. RR11-2007-137 Private Collection, NSW EXHIBITED Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW, Contemporary Aboriginal Art, August - September 2019

Ramsey is a senior Gija lawman who, like his contemporary Paddy Bedford, began painting relatively late in life for Jirrawun Aboriginal Arts Corporation. His works convey the hills and gorges surrounding Elgee Cliffs, also known as Warlawoon Country, home to the Rock Wallabies that live around camping areas and near waterholes. Images of cliffs, hills, rocks, waterholes, and meeting places appear as distillations of prominent features in this landscape. A circle may be a waterhole, a place or a cave; a rectangle a stockyard or hills. He conveys this language of floodwater, natural and man-made elements by mixing two colours, wet on wet, across the surface of the board to create the gestural strokes and rhythm of the brush – spiritually a way to represent earth, wind, fire, and water.

According to Ramsey ‘When the strong wind comes blowing from the east it throws dust everywhere. It is a place for the rainbow snake, the dangerous one. In early days if people went there, the local people had to perform a welcoming ceremony, putting water from the country on them (the strangers). Lots of people would come to dance ‘Joonba style’. My parents lived there.’

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LOT #25 Emily Kame Kngwarreye (1910 - 1996) Kame-Summer Awelye, 1992 121 x 208 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $200,000 - 250,000 32 |

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PROVENANCE DeImore Gallery, NT Cat No. 92A13 Gallery Gondwana, NT Private Collection, NT Lawson~Menzies, Aboriginal Fine Art, Sydney, Nov 2005, Lot No. 155 Private Collection, Vic

Toward the end of 1991, women’s Awelye ceremonies were being held in Utopia and the surrounding region. Emily’s work became more expressionist, with the graphic under-layer of linear tracings and animal prints no longer evident. A number of exceptional paintings, including this particular work, were produced between November 1991 and February 1992.

December was overwhelmingly humid with hot northerly winds.

The anticipation of rain and the ongoing ceremonial activity enlivened the spiritual atmosphere. In this painting, which can be viewed horizontally or vertically, radiant fields of yellow and pink dots which cluster and trace across the surface vary in hue

and density. They celebrate the successful life cycle of kame, the finger yam, with its daisy-like flowers which form seeds for making damper.

If any single artist could be said to be the standard bearer for contemporary Indigenous painting, Emily must surely be the one. It is impossible to dispute the fact that, at their best, the paintings of Emily Kame Kngwarreye place her in the highest league of international artists of her time.

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LOT #26 Kathleen Petyarre (1940 - 2018) Thorny Devil Lizard Dreaming at Dusk, 1999 122 x 183 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $18,000 - 22,000 PROVENANCE Gallerie Australis, SA Cat No. GAKP1099207 Mary Place Gallery, NSW Private Collection, NSW EXHIBITED Paintings by Kathleen Petyarre, 1999, Cooee Art Gallery and Gallerie Australis, Mary Place, NSW Genius of Place: The work of Kathleen Petyarre, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, NSW, 2001 LITERATURE Catalogue, Cossey D., Nicholls C., Paintings by Kathleen Petyarre, 1999, pp10-11 34 |

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The most common theme in Kathleen Petyarre’s paintings refers to Arnkerrth, the Mountain Devil or Thorny Devil Lizard and the Dreamings associated with this small spiky lizard that is believed to have created the the artist’s country. As the Lizard criss-crosses the vast terrain, changing colour according to its environment, it has moved the sand, grain by grain throughout the history of time, creating the hills and valleys, sandhills and waterholes that are seen there today.

Kathleen was an exceptionally gifted and highly disciplined artist. She spent many hours preparing her canvas, carefully applying layer upon layer of different coloured paint that was absorbed into the linen, thereby imparting an extremely refined appearance to the finished painting. Dots sink into the work, barely visible while others are over-painted across the surface thereby heightening the illusion of three-dimensionality.

Kathleen was a great innovator; a singularly talented artist who won the prestigious National Aboriginal Art and TSI Award and was recognised with a solo retrospective exhibition at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary art - in which this painting

LOT #27 Abie Kemarre Loy (1972 - ) Bush Leaf, 2008 107 x 107 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $4,000 - 6,000 PROVENANCE Galerie Australis, SA Cat No. GAAI 05081530 Cooee Art Gallery, NSW Corporate Collection, Vic

Born in 1972, Abie Loy Kemarre belongs to the Eastern Anmatyerre language group and identifies with her traditional country at Lylenty or Mosquito Bore. She developed her painting technique alongside her famous grandmother Kathleen Petyarre.

Under Eastern Anmatyerr Law, she has the right to portray several Dreamings. These include the Bush Hen and Bush Leaf Dreaming. The bush leaf is used by Aboriginal people to cure a whole range of illnesses including colds, headaches, and sores.

It grows in a swamp near some sandhills close to the Utopia region in Abie’s grandfather’s country. Apart from its wonderful curative properties it is closely associated with women, and is a shape-shifter, a state-changer. Its female custodians are said to possess the ability to transform themselves from their human form into the bush leaf and back again during ceremony.

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LOT #28 Minnie Pwerle (1910 - 2006) Awelye Atnuengerrp, 2003 90.5 x 60.5 cm 94 x 64 cm (framed) synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $3,000 - 4,000 PROVENANCE Dacou Gallery, SA Cat No. DG110303 Private Collection, Vic The bold linear patterns of stripes and curves throughout Minnie’s painting depicts the women’s ceremonial body paint design. After smearing their bodies with animal fat, the women trace these designs onto their breasts, arms and thighs singing as each woman has a turn to be ‘painted up’.

LOT #29 Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula (1942 - 2001) Straightening Spears, 1998 120 x 90 cm synthetic polymer on Belgian linen EST $3,000 - 5,000 PROVENANCE Mbantua Gallery, NT Cat No. MB6873 Kintoli Gallery, SA Cat No. KG-TTT-97-417 Private Collection, SA EXHIBITED Art of the Pintupi, Art Lounge Gallery, SA, 2000 36 |

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LOT #30 Mick Kubaku (1925 - 2008) Short-necked Turtoise, c.1980 77 x 51 cm natural earth pigments on stringy bark EST $2,500 - 3,500 PROVENANCE Painted at Oenpeilli (Gunbalanya) Western Arnhem Land, NT Hogarth Galleries, NSW Private Collection, Vic Certificate on the reverse reads “This is Ngarrd, the short necked tortoise, which has a special song and dance performed for it in fresh water ceremonies (Bunguls) regularly performed in the Maningrida area to ensure a continuation of food for the Yolngu people.�

LOT #31 Aubrey Tigan (1945 - 2013) Pearl Shell Lonka Lonka, c.2005 17 x 13 cm (irregular) incised pearl shell with red ochre infill EST $1,500 - 2,000 PROVENANCE Short Street Gallery, WA Private Collection, NSW Aubrey Tigan was a respected elder and lawman of the Bardi and Djawi people who lived on the Dampier Peninsula, north of Broome. Tigan made Riji (carved pearl shell) since his initiation at age 21. He preferred to work in pearl shell but was skilled in making all types of artefacts.

The Riji shell is what the young men wear during the third-last stage of their initiation into tribal law. After the final stage the initiate is allowed to be with his promised wife. Prior to this, he can talk to her but no physical contact is allowed. The entire initiation process from boyhood to manhood takes about 8-10 years.The young man is given a pearl shell as part of the initiation process and the red paint stage (called ilyboorr) indicates that he is now a man and is free to marry.

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LOT #33 Artist Once Known A North Queensland Woomera, c.1880 94 x 5 cm wood, resin, twine and shell EST $1,000 - 1,500 PROVENANCE Field Collected, Qld Private Collection, NSW Private Collection, Vic A North Queensland wooden spear-thrower with a wood peg attached at a right angle to distal end by fibre string and resin.

Two oval sections of bivalve shell attached to proximal end by resin; old burnished patina.

LOT #32 Artist Once Known A Collection of Five Ceremonial Spear Heads, c.1920 Sizes Left to Right 59 x 5 x 2 cm, 90 x 4.5 x 2 cm, 100 x 4 x 3 cm , 98 x 5 x 2 cm, 51 x 5 x 2.5 cm carved hardwood EST $2,500 - 3,500 PROVENANCE Collected Victoria River Region, NT Private Collection, NSW Fine carved hardwood spear tips, originally attached to bamboo shafts with sinew and natural resins, traces of original ochre, old shiny, encrusted patina.

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LOT #34 Artist Once Known A West Australian Wunda Shield, c.1900 70 x 18 x 6 cm carved and incised wood with ochre infill EST $3,000 - 5,000 PROVENANCE Field Collected, WA Pulleine Collection, SA (Est. prior to 1926) Lawsons, Tribal Art, 1972 Ghallagher Collection, NSW Private Collection, NSW Carved in hardwood of ovoid shape, the front decorated with deeply fluted zigzag design infill with traces of red and white ochre.

Wunda Shields are typically identified by fluted channels running parallel with each other in three distinctive panels. The central panel is always diagonal or horizontal. They are defined individually or in blocks with bands of colour, in this instance red and white ochre.

Though they were found throughout Western Australia their manufacture was centred around the Murchison and Gascoyne River region. From here they were traded for economic or religious purposes, to other regions. They were carried in battle to protect against spears, boomerangs and clubs. They were a status symbol carried by the older men and they were used in ceremonial ritual. This example dating back to the late 19th or early 20th century is beautifully executed in both form and decoration with remnants of ochre in-fill clearly evident.

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LOT #35 Dini Campbell Tjampitjinpa (c. 1942 - 2000) Rockholes site of Wirripi, 1992 121 x 91 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $2,500 - 3,500 PROVENANCE Papunya Tula Artists, NT Cat No. DC920726 Private Collection, Qld Accompanied by original Papunya Tula Artists documentation 40 |

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Dinny Campbell was the younger brother of Anatjari Tjampitjinpa, one of the original painting group in Papunya. He watched the old men during the 70s and assisted his brother Anatjari for some time. In 1981, Uta Uta Tjangala invited Dinny to assist him on the very large canvas depicting events at the site of Yumari . This was considered a great honour. The work became one of the most important early paintings from the Western Desert.

The roundels in this painting represent a series of rockholes at the site of Wirripi to the east of Jupiter Well. In mythological times a large group of Tingari men travelled to this site for the purpose of conducting ceremonies. They were accompanied by novices and followed by Tingari women. Their travels and adventures are enshrined in a number of song cycles.The associated myths form part of the teachings of the post initiatory youths today as well as providing explanations for contemporary customs.

Ronnie Tjampitjinpa’s works first appeared in Papunya Tula exhibitions during the 1970s, and later in commercial art galleries in Sydney and Melbourne throughout the 1980s. He won the Alice Springs Art Prize in 1988, followed by successive solo exhibitions at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi in 1989 and 1990.

LOT #36 Ronnie Tjampitjinpa (c. 1943 - ) Tingari Cycle, 1999 122 x 92 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $5,000 - 7,000 PROVENANCE Yanda Art, NT Cat No. R2 Creative Native Gallery, WA Private Collection, New York, USA

More than any other figure, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa can be credited with having forged a new artistic direction in embracing aesthetic minimalism, thereby freeing up further possibilities for the younger upcoming generation of painters, and challenging fixed perceptions of Western Desert art. His hypnotic designs explore interacting geometric shapes which emanate an eye-catching, pulsating action. Still infused with the Dreamings of his mythical Tingari ancestors, Tjampitjinpa refined the characteristic Pintupi simplicity of design, boldly scaling up fundamental pictorial elements, freeing them from their iconographic reference points and strongly emphasising the distinctive repetition of line and form that has always infused Pintupi art with the spirit of their vast and ancient lands.

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LOT #37 Charlie Djuritjini (1952 - ) Lorrkon - Mortuary Pole, c.1990 250 x 20 x 20 cm natural earth pigment on Eucalyptus wood EST $4,000 - 6,000 PROVENANCE Bula Bula Arts, Ramingining, NT Cooee Art Gallery, NSW Private Collection, NSW Charlies Djurritjini’s country is an area called The Crossing (Mutyka) near Mowangi, a large area of swampland stretching behind Ramingining in Central Arnhem Land all the way up to the mountains. He lives in his homeland fishing, hunting, and making art about his Dreamings and totems.

LOT #38 Paddy Fordham Wainburranga (1932 - 2006) 2 x Balangjalngalan - Spirit Figures 1 x Dadba - King Brown Snake, 1989 Snake: 244 x 6 cm Balangjalngalan: 196 x 7 cm Balangjalngalan: 246 x 6 cm Carved hardwood (but-but) and natural earth pigments EST $5,000 - 7,000 PROVENANCE Mimi Arts and Crafts, Katherine, NT Private Collection, Vic Balangjalnagalan are responsible for seeing that things in the human world go in accordance with the will of the Spirits. They are said to be half-human, half-spirit, with the power to transform at will. They are wise and provide guidance and healing, often appearing in the form of animals or birds, but generally live as humans, and sometimes take the role of witch doctor. However, they have been known at times to abduct unattended babies or straying children as a means of recruiting new members and can become quite strict when customs are not faithfully observed.

So, like all other-worldly powers, they have a frightening aspect and must be heeded with great respect. They are spirits that are woven into the kinship system as inextricable links in a holistic cosmology.

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LOT #39 Charlie Rrukula (1935 - c.1990) Bird Carving - Brolga, c.1985 63 x 11 x 12 cm natural earth pigment on carved wood EST $1,800 - 2,400 PROVENANCE Maningrida Arts and Culture, NT Private Collection, Qld Charlie Rurrkula was a renowned Rembarrnga carver and bark painter who began making art in 1956. His carvings of totemic birds and fish were particularly distinctive for their fine aesthetic and craftsmanship. Rurrkula’s only solo exhibition was held at the Aboriginal Artist’s Gallery in Melbourne in 1989, three years after his work was included in the landmark exhibition The Art of the First Australians at the Kobe City Art Museum in Japan.

His pieces are rare in the private domain but adorn many of the most prestigious museum collections.

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LOT #40 Charlie Tjapangarti (c.1949 - ) Pirrinya, 2004 152 x 123 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $6,000 - 8,000 PROVENANCE Papunya Tula Artists, NT, Cat No. CT0411039 Private Collection, WA Accompanied by original Papunya Tula Artists documentation The painting depicts designs associated with the swamp site of Pirrinya, north west of Jupiter Well in Western Australia.

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before travelling east, passing through Yunala and Tarkul, and then north to Lake Mackay. Since events associated with the Tingari Cycle are of a secret nature, no further detail was given.

Generally, the Tingari are a group of Mythical characters of the Dreaming who travelled over vast stretches of the country, performing rituals and creating and shaping particular sites. The Tingari Men were usually accompanied by novices and followed

by Tingari Women - their travels and adventures are enshrined in a number of song cycles. These mythologies form part of the teachings of the post initiatory youths today as well as providing explanations for contemporary customs.

Charlie Tjapangati began painting for Papunya Tula Artists in 1977. His works have appeared in many group exhibitions and two solo exhibitions. His work is included in major collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, the University of Virginia, USA, and the Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory.

LOT #41 Yannima Tommy Watson (1935 - 2017) Untitled (Artist’s Country), 2015 74 x 58.5 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $8,000 - 10,000 PROVENANCE Yanda Art, NT Cat No. TW201528 Private Collection, Vic Pitjantjatjara elder Tommy Watson gained wide acclaim in an astonishingly short amount of time. His first works were created at the community arts centre in Irrunytju, 12 kms south-west of the tri-state border where the Northern Territory, Western Australia, and South Australia meet. This was just 44 kilometres east of Anamarapiti, where he was born c.1935. Though he

recalled visiting Papunya in his youth and observing the birth of the art movement there, he did not take up painting for another 30 years.

His debut at the 2002 Desert Mob show in Alice Springs was followed by his participation in a series of group exhibitions from which his reputation gained momentum. His prominence as an artist of the highest renown was ultimately cemented when, in 2006, he was commissioned to create a permanent installation at Musee du Quai Branly, in Paris.

Grounded in his paintings are rockholes, mountain ranges, and creekbeds, transmitted in waves of light. Many of his paintings are, in fact, evocative of nuclear shock waves, light waves, and explosions.

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LOT #42 Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (1933 - 2002) Ngarlu, Love Story, 1994 46 x 57 cm 75 x 84 cm (framed) Etching on paper, with hand painted background dotting EST $4,000 - 6,000 PROVENANCE Printed by Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne, 1994 Artspeak Studio Gallery, Vic Aboriginal Fine Art, NT Cat No. A9136 Private Collection, Vic 46 |

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This is the tale of incestuous lust and the magical spells cast by an old Tjungurrayi man called Lintipilinti in order to seduce a woman of the wrong skin. To achieve this illicit end, Lintipilinti uses sacred songs and a hairstring spindle that he made from his own hair and a pair of thin sticks.The man is depicted in this work as a large U shape. The object of his desire is a wrong-skinned Napangardi woman who is travelling from Yuelamu (Mount Allen) looking for the native sugar that is found in abundance on Eucalyptus leaves, where it is deposited by small flying ants. The woman does not realise until too late that she is being stalked by the Tungurrayi who is telepathically calling her to him while using ritual paraphenalia and a sacred ground painting. Though she is a strictly forbidden sexual partner, Lintipilinti shows no concern.

At Ngarlu (Red Hill) a small oval shaped rockhole water source is found. If prospective lovers drink from the well it is said to have a powerful effect upon them.

LOT #43 Albert Namatjira (1902 - 1959) Two hand-painted Woomeras, c.1940 67 x 15 cm 72.5 x 12 cm 87.5 x 59 cm (framed) watercolour over pencil on hardwood EST $8,000 - 10,000 PROVENANCE Aboriginal Handicraft, Hermannsburg, NT Deutscher & Hackett, Important Aboriginal + Oceanic Art, Melbourne, June 2011, Lot No. 51 Private Collection, NSW

Two hand-painted woomeras. The first depicting a Ghost Gum, the second the Macdonnell Ranges. Each with a wooden peg attached with sinew and a spinifex resin handle, one signed lower right: Albert Namatjira. Both inscribed verso, Aboriginal Handicraft / Hermannsburg / Central Australia and bearing a painted image of a goanna.

The Hermannsburg Mission was established by Lutheran missionaries in 1877 on the banks of the Finke River, west of Alice Springs. From 1894 it was overseen by Pastor Carl Strehlow. Albert Namatjira was born and grew up there. He was introduced to the Western style of painting in the early 1930s by visiting artists Rex Battarbee and John Gardner.

In response to increasing tourist numbers after the extension of the railway to Alice Springs in 1929, the Arrernte people at Hermannsburg were encouraged to make a range of souvenirs for visitors. Between the 1930s and 1950s they sold everything from needlework and religious decorative items to artefacts including spear throwers, boomerangs and spears.

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LOT #44 Nyurapayia (Mrs Bennett) Nampitjinpa (1935 - 2013) Punkilpirri, 2008 182 x 242.5 cm powder pigment on composition board EST $60,000 - 80,000 PROVENANCE Yanda Art, NT Cat No. MRSB200823 Agathon Galleries, NSW Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by original Yanda Art documentation Nyurapayia Nampitjinpa was born in Pitjantjatjara country, near the site of today’s Docker River community. She saw no white men until she was in her teens and spent much of her childhood at Pangkupirri, a set of sheltered rockholes deep in the range-folds of the Gibson Desert. By the time she walked in from the bush and encountered mission life, she had become a healer and a person of great ritual authority. She moved to Kintore, closer to her traditional lands, and then on to Tjukurla, across the West Australian border in the 1980s.

Nyurapayia, was a close associate of the key painters who shaped the women’s painting movement in the early to mid 1990s. Yet she painted only relatively minor works for Papunya Tula during the 1990s. She hit her creative peak painting large, complex canvases depicting her ancestral rockholes in dark, curved lines on black or white shimmering grounds during the last decade of her life.

Her depictions of the sand-dune country and surrounding rocky outcrops bear a relationship to the designs used for body painting during the inma (ceremonial dance). At the time of her death in February 2013, Nyurapayia had reached the pinnacle of desert law and sacred knowledge and was revered by women throughout the Western Desert.

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LOT #45 Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi (c. 1928 - 1998) The Tingari at Kaakuratintja, 1995 153 x 77 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $4,000 - 6,000 PROVENANCE Papunya Tula Artists, NT Cat No. YY950667 Songlines Aboriginal Art, San Francisco, USA Private Collection, SA 50 |

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With his natural talent for conceiving uncomplicated yet arresting arrangements, Yala Yala’s paintings were at the forefront of the classic Tingari period. His mind-maps of his vast desert homeland emanate a simple grandeur. Loops, spirals and roundels are linked by travelling lines and held in unity with often diffuse background dotting. A restricted range of ochre colours conveys his sense of tethering to the earth, which was also reflected in his working manner. With the other Pintupi artists, he would often sing traditional chants while painting, always using a sense of touch through hands and fingers, to bring the work into being.

This painting depicts designs associated with Tingari site of Kaakuratintja (Lake MacDonald).

LOT #46 Abie Jangala (1919 - 2002) Rainbow, 1994 120 x 102 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $7,000 - 9,000 PROVENANCE Warnayaka Arts, NT Cat No. 1040 Cooee Art Gallery, NSW Private Collection, NSW

Abie Janala’s paintings were unique recreations of the iconography that pertained to rain making ceremonies and the reverence in which Dreamings associated with the Rainbow Men are held amongst Warlpiri people. Stark symbols specifically representing rainbows, lightning, clouds, waterholes and frogs, are composed on his canvasses in much the same way as they are etched in relief on the body of rainmakers when covered in kapok or feather down for ceremony. Abie typically painted these powerful symbols, which are also recreated in ceremonial ground constructions, in solid black or red, outlined in single alternate bands of bright yellow, green and red dots, thereby emboldening the icons to evoke the shimmering and alluring effect of the Rainbow Men and their dramatic manifestation as natural climatic phenomena.

Typically these paintings are in-filled with compact white dots representing rain or fields of hailstones.

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LOT #47 Timmy Payungka Tjapangati (1935 - 2000) Tingari, 1994 153 x 122 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $18,000 - 22,000 PROVENANCE Papunya Tula Artists, NT, Cat No. TP961101 Private Collection, NSW Utopia Art, NSW, Cat No. MN9931 Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by original Papunya Tula Artists documentation 52 |

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Timmy Payungka was one of the original group of artists who began painting for Geoff Bardon in 1971. During the early days of painting at Papunya, he was inclined to paint unrestrained imagery despite the prevailing anxiety about revealing sacred material. However from the early 1980s onward, he increasingly removed representational motifs from his paintings and became more focused on Pintupi male conventions akin to formal abstraction. He used repeated patterning to build a palpable sense of intensity, augmented by contrasting areas of dotted colour and experimentation with tonal arrangements. These late career paintings, characterised by reductive designs in which the repetition of geometric keyed elements concentrate the visual power in referencing the sacred realm, assert Timmy’s ceremonial authority.

LOT #48 George (Hairbrush) Tjungarrayi (1947 - ) Tali Sandhills, 2003 152 x 183 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $25,000 - 35,000 PROVENANCE Mason Gallery, NT Cat No. GT200303 Fireworks Gallery, Qld Cat No. FG04224.GT Private Collection, NSW Cooee Art Gallery, NSW Private Collection, Vic EXHIBITED Flinders Lane Gallery, Vic Ochres to Dust, June 2009, Cooee Art Gallery, NSW

This work is based on the Tingari men’s site in his country, west of Kintore. These mythical Tingari characters travelled over vast stretches of the country, performing rituals and creating and shaping particular sites. Their travels and adventures are enshrined in a number of song cycles and form part of the teachings for post-initiation youths.

George Tjungarrayi gained a growing reputation from the mid 1990s as the emerging contemporary art market showed its preference for painterliness and a degree of abstraction. He is now considered amongst the most accomplished of all Pintupi male painters.

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LOT #49 Emily Kame Kngwarreye (1910 - 1996) Arlatyte Dreaming (Pencil Yam), 1996 61 x 92 cm synthetic polymer paint and earth pigment on Belgian linen EST $10,000 - 12,000 PROVENANCE Utopia Art (Central Land Council), NT Cat No. EKK9711 Gallery Gondwana, NT Cat No. 1765 Eva Breuer Art Dealer, NSW Private Collection, NSW EXHIBITED Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW, Contemporary Aboriginal Art, August - September 2019 54 |

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.

During 1996, the last year of Emily’s life, Allan Glaester ran a nascent art centre in the Utopia community. As as a result of his efforts to influence Central and Eastern Desert painters back to using natural earth pigments as a medium, Emily produced a body of work in ochres in which she depicted Pencil Yams (Arlatyet) and their flowers. An exhibition of these was held at Lauraine Diggins Fine Art in Melbourne in the same year.

This painting was among Emily’s first attempts at using natural ochres to depict her Arlatyey Dreaming.

Rf. for other examples of Emily’s ochre paintings executed at the same time, see ‘Emily Kame Kngwarreye: The First Ochres’, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne, March 1996

LOT #50 Trevor Nickolls (1949 - 2012) Untitled Landscape, 1990 80 x 54.5 cm synthetic polymer paint on canvas

A solid grounding in the theory of Western art put Trevor Nickolls in a unique position when, towards the end of his post-graduate degree, he had a chance encounter with Papunya artist Dinny Nolan.

PROVENANCE Queensland College of Art, Qld Private Collection, Qld

A new mood permeated his work of this period. Cramped urban complexities gave way to an elemental landscape where figures, trees, animals and waterholes were held in a direct frontal foreground, confronting and engaging the viewer with a powerful sense of mythic relatedness. Tightly patterned dots radiated a vibrant life force, harmonising the background in a unique rendition of an Australianised Garden of Eden.

EXHIBITED Queensland College of Art, Qld, Gondola Dreaming, 1990

This work was painted immediately after his return from representing Australia at the 1990 Venice Biennale.

EST $4,000 - 6,000

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LOT #51 Dennis Nona (1973 - ) Kurrs-iew Kuiok, 1992 54h x 30w cm (irregular) Hand built ceramic pot, decorated and incised glaze on earthenware EST $4,000 - 6,000 PROVENANCE End of year student art exhibition, Tropical North Queensland College of TAFE Private Collection, Qld Dennis Nona was born on Badu (Mulgrave Island). He was taught the art of traditional wood carving as a young man and sat at the feet of his father and other Elders learning the unique myths and legends of the western Torres Strait Islander people. In his late teens, he attended the Tropical Far North 56 |

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Queensland College of TAFE and the Canberra School of Art where he trained as a master printmaker. His exploration and skill as a carver of intricate designs led him to develop his practice carving into Linoleum and engraving etching plates. In time this contemporary visual expression became a new means to retell the great creation stories of the Torres Strait Islanders.

This ceramic piece was made early in his career while studying at the TAFE in Cairns. The Title, Kurrs-iew Kuiok, refers to the spirit heads of two hammer head sharks. These creatures roam around shallow reefs of Badu Island in search of stingrays and are feared by the local inhabitants.

LOT #52 Clinton Nain (1971 - ) Red Crown Blak Flowers, 2011 112 x 77 cm acrylic, enamel and ink on Belgian linen EST $3,000 - 5,000 PROVENANCE Commissioned from the artist Corporate Collection, Vic Born in Melbourne, of Torres Strait Islander heritage, the ar tist Clinton Nain creates vivid abstract canvasses using domestic materials for his mediums, such as heritage coloured house paint, bitumen paint and household bleach.

He employs a range of motifs in his ar t that refer to the dominant culture and are symbolic of its power, ranging

from language, religion, land, country, crown to colonisation of the dispossessed.

Nain is well known for his White King, Blak Queen series, a visual pun on colour and sexuality, which explored the tainted path of colonisation through a black feminine perspective.

Since his earliest days as an art school graduate, Clinton Nain has established a significant profile in the critical debates of contemporary Australian art. Though his works have a naive and unfinished quality, they are aesthetically and conceptually intellectual and highly developed.

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LOT #53 Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (1933 - 2002) Two Jangulas (Tjangalas), 1990 100 x 128 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $7,000 - 9,000 PROVENANCE Commissioned by Des Rogers, Vic Cat No. CP-001 Private Collection, Vic Private Collection, SA LITERATURE Rf. For an account of Dr. Vivien Johnson’s reaction on seeing a rendition of this Dreaming for the first time and an image of a similar work see Johnson V., Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Art Gallery of South Australia, pp194-195 58 |

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The painting depicts the deaths of two sons who had angered their father, the old Blue Tongue Lizard man Lungkata, by killing a kangaroo which was sacred to him and then eating it in secret without sharing it with him. Enraged by his sons’ actions Lungkata started a great bush fire at Warlugulong, in which the two brothers perished. In this rendition of the story the work is reminiscent of the earliest unadorned Papunya boards with a plain black ground.

LOT #54 Richard Bell (c.1953 - ) I Am Not Sorry, 2005 60 x 50 cm synthetic polymer paint on canvas EST $3,000 - 4,000 PROVENANCE Proppa Now Collective, Qld Private Collection, Qld EXHIBITED Proppa Now Exhibition, South Brisbane, 2005

Born in 1953, Richard Bell spent his early childhood living in a tent, then a corrugated tin shack on an Aboriginal reserve until he was 14. He witnessed firsthand the mistreatment of Aboriginal people when his home was bulldozed by the government. He became involved in the Aboriginal Rights Movement in the 1970s before working for the New South Wales Aboriginal Legal Service. He began painting at 34 as a way to earn money by making souvenirs for tourists.

In 2009, his introductory American exhibition, ‘Richard Bell: I Am Not Sorry’, showcased in New York. Bell plays with the appropriation of abstract expressionism and pop art styles of painters like Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, and Andy Warhol.

The text that accompanies each piece is what generally challenges the viewer.

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LOT #55 Kunyi June-Anne McInerney (1951 - ) Family at Evening, 1988 76 x 122 cm oil paint on canvas EST $2,600 - 3,200 PROVENANCE Queensland Aboriginal Creations, Qld Private Collection, Qld signed verso EXHIBITED Solo Exhibition, Queensland Aboriginal Creations, Brisbane, 1988

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South Australian artist Kunyi June Anne McInerney grew up in the Oodnadatta Mission Home during the 1950s. She draws upon her experiences as a member of the Stolen Generation to document the memories of her childhood. In this way her paintings reflect her own dispossession, and reveal an ofteninvisible part of Australian history.

Her works are characterised by a vibrant use of colour, facial expression, and depiction of landscape. In the artist’s own words, “these are my stories from a dry remote place where my experiences were so different from what Australian children know today. I want to tell my story, so they don’t ever do it again. They took away my family, my culture and who I could have been. These are not fairy tales. They are true and I want people to understand.”

LOT #56 Netta Loogatha (1942 - ) My Country, 2003 134 x 60 cm 137 x 63 cm (framed) synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $3,500 - 4,500 PROVENANCE Mornington Island Arts and Crafts, Qld Cat No. 7520-L-NE0212 Marshal Arts, SA Cat No. 198/03 Private Collection, Tas Netta Loogatha, was born in 1942 on Bentinck Island. She began painting in 2OO5, when the Kaidilt group of Bentinck Island women joined Lardil artists at Mornington Island Art. Netta’s vibrant paintings explore the tropical land and seascape of her islands in far-north Queensland. They invite the viewer deep into the artist’s country and culture as in this charming small work by an artist drawing toward the end of her life.

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LOT #57 Weaver Jack (1928 - 2010) Lungarung, 2006 168 x 122 cm synthetic polymer paint on cavnas EST $9,000 - 12,000 PROVENANCE Short St Gallery, WA Cat No. 3636 William Mora Galleries, Vic Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by original Short Street Gallery documentation EXHIBITED Weaver Jack: Recent Paintings, William Mora Galleries, Melbourne, March 2008 62 |

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Lungurang country lies along the Canning Stock Route in the Great Sandy Desert in Western Australia. This is where the artist was born. She travelled around this place as a young woman walking through the sand dunes (tali) collecting Mayi (bushfood) with her mother. They hunted kuwi, and camped in the area. This took place during the 1930s when they were still desert nomads, before they had clothes. Weaver had two brothers that lived with them there.

In this work created in her late 70s, she has depicted a place called Sinpa, deep in the desert region of Western Australia.

Here she recalled collecting bush onion (junta), near the waterhole (jila). There was plenty of good bush food to be collected along the warla (mud flats) there.

LOT #58 Kunmanara Wingu Tingima (c.1935 - 2010) Kuru Ala, 2007 120 x 90 cm synthetic polymer paint on canvas EST $5,000 - 8,000 PROVENANCE Tjungu Palya Art Centre, SA Cat No. 07771 Marshall Arts, SA Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by original Tjungu Palya documentation EXHIBITED Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW, Contemporary Aboriginal Art, August - September 2019

Wingu was born at a rockhole called Nyumun, in the Western Desert of Western Australia in the 1920s. She travelled by foot with her mother and father to the mission at Ernabella, where she worked spinning sheep’s wool. Just 5 years before her death in 2010, she moved to Nyapari in South Australia and later Irrunytju in Western Australia, where she began painting.

This is Kuru Ala, a sacred place for the Seven Sisters story. The sisters were travelling through this country. Wati Nyiiru was chasing them all over. He was a Ngankuri (magician) and could change into many forms to trick the sisters. He changed into a quandong tree, but when the sisters tasted it they knew it wasn’t quite right.

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LOT #59 Judy Napangardi Watson (c.1925 - 2016) Mina Mina Jukurrpa, 2005 152 x 122 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $9,000 - 12,000 PROVENANCE Warlukurlangu Artists, NT Cat No. 773/05 Framed Gallery, NT Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by original Warlukurlangu Artists documentation EXHIBITED Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW, Contemporary Aboriginal Art, August - September 2019 64 |

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Judy Watson’s principle focus was the Women’s Dreaming of the Karnta-kurlangu, a large number of ancestral women who danced across the land, creating important sites, discovering plants, foods and medicines and establishing the ceremonies that would perpetuate their generative powers.

These ancestral women danced with enthusiasm and great enjoyment. The potent life force with which they imbued the country is evoked in Judy’s love of colour and richly textured rippling surface. Painted in the artist’s distinct ‘dragged’ dotting style, Judy mimics the dance of her ancestors across the country during its creation.

The sinuous lines in this work represent ngalyipi, snake vine, a rope-like creeper made into rope and used to carry objects during their travels. The circles are jintiparnta, edible truffle, which the women gathered for sustenance on their long journey which eventually took them beyond Waripiri country.

LOT #60 Jimmy Mawukura (Mulgra) Nerrimah (1924 - 2013) Mulura Mulura, 1999 64.5 x 75 cm synthetic polymer paint on canvas EST $2,000 - 3,000 PROVENANCE Mangkaja Arts, WA Cat No. PC178/99 Art Place Gallery, Perth, WA Private Collection, New York USA

Jimmy Nerrimah’s country was Wayampajar ti, a jila (permanent waterhole) in the nor th-western area of the Great Sandy Deser t. He was born 500 km south-east of Derby, where he went through the ‘law’. As a fully initiated Walmajarri man, he knew all of the waterholes and soakages throughout his clan lands and lived in the deser t, moving around totally reliant on his intimate knowledge of country for most of his life.

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LOT #61 Johnny Mosquito Tjapangarti (1922 - 2004) Minchin, in the Great Sandy Desert, 1995 90 x 60 cm natural earth pigments on Belgian linen EST $2,800 - 3,800 PROVENANCE Warlayirti Artists, WA Cat No. 878/95 Shapiro Auctioneers, NSW, June 2003, Lot No. 135 Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by original Warlayirti Artists documentation 66 |

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Johnny Mosquito was born in the Great Sandy Desert c.1920 and walked into the old Balgo mission in his twenties. During his lifetime he became the most senior ‘rainmaker’ in the Balgo Hills community and was responsible for all of the Dreamings associated with rain - including rainbows, thunder, clouds and lightning.

Often employing brilliant shades of blue to depict water, he also used red and occasionally yellow, separated solely by minimal white linear dots to delineate blocks of flat colour in emphasising the most important features. This contrast between his use of flat colour and vibratory dots is superb and reaches its zenith in his 1993-1996 paintings.

Johnny Mosquito is revered as having been one of the first generation of Balgo painters. Every canvas he created, even those painted at the very end of his life, reveal an interior landscape redolent with meaning and charged with energy.

LOT #62 Eubena Nampitjin (1924 - 2013) Untitled - Artist’s Country near Kunawarritji, 1998 80 x 120 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $3,500 - 5,500 PROVENANCE Warlayirti Artists, WA Cat No. EN 001/98 Creative Native Gallery, WA Private Collection, USA

While Balgo’s physical isolation has conferred the space to evolve a distinct and unique artistic style, Eubena’s own separation from her homeland manifested as an art of absence, an act of homage which crystallised the poignancy of her country. The sense of raw energy and spontaneity in her work, with her trademark use of vibrant colour, bold patterning, and rough and ready handling, creates an ‘extraordinary sense of presence,’ that overrides any connotations of the work as an object of anthropological significance and invites the viewer ‘to appreciate pictures for their immediate visual impact as works of contemporary art’* In this work Eubena painted her country along the middle stretches of the Canning Stock Route, near Kunawarritji (Well 33) and a pamarr (hill) named Yilpa. This is place where Eubena would often hunt and gather food. The strong lines in the painting depict the tali (sandhills) that dominate this country. * John McDonald, Sydney Morning Herald, 25 Feb, 1995 INDIGENOUS FINE ART

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LOT #63 Regina Wilson (1948 - ) Message Sticks, c.2006 110 x 204 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $14,000 - 16,000 PROVENANCE Gifted to the current owner by the artist and her husband Private Collection, NSW Before Europeans came to the far north, Aboriginal people traditionally used message sticks to let others know when ceremonies would take place. They marked the stick with the place and time and sent it to be passed on from one clan to the next until it had travelled to the far reaches of their land and beyond. The message on the stick, made of pine, was applied using a stone axe. Today, Aboriginal people use a hot wire or file to engrave a message if they want to pass on messages in the traditional way.

Regina Pilawuk Wilson was born in 1948 in the Daly River region of the Northern Territory. In 1973, together with her husband Harold Wilson, she founded the Peppimenarti community as a permanent settlement.The location of the community is an important Dreaming site situated amid wetlands and floodplains at the centre of the Daly River Aboriginal Reserve, 300 kilometres southwest of Darwin.

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LOT #64

PROVENANCE Arnhem Land Art Gallery, NT Cat No. MN0209 Japingka Gallery, WA Private Collection, New York, USA

bodies for ceremony. The tactile surfaces of her paintings reflect this touching and sensing, while the images serve to revivify the journeying of her two female ancestors, the Kungka Kutjarra, as they dance their way across the country. Their travels follow the desert water sources and, particularly in Makinti’s art, Lupulnga, the rockhole where she was born and where her connections to her spiritual origins are felt. Small ovoid roundels, often in linear sequence, denote this crossing of country. “Care for country” is an important motivation for this bond as the water sources must be cleared of debris and sand to keep them, and the life they support, fresh and flowing.

Makinti began painting in 1994, when a women’s painting project was organised for the Haasts Bluff and Kintore communities. Her gestural style and bold line work were derived from painting with her fingers dipped in earth ochres onto women’s

The lines through the work invoke the body painting for women’s ceremonies and more particularly represent spun hair-string, which is used to make belts worn by women during ceremonies associated with this Rockhole site.

Makinti Napanangka (c. 1930 - 2011) Travels of the Kungka Kutjarra, 2004 182 x 151cm synthetic polymer on Belgian linen EST $8,000 - 12,000

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LOT #65 Naata Nungurrayi (1932 - ) Marrapinti, 2007 122 x 153 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $18,000 - 22,000 PROVENANCE Yanda Aboriginal Art, NT Cat No. 200642SY Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by original Yanda documentation and a folio of working images 70 |

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This painting depicts the creation events at the rockhole site of Marrapinti, west of Kiwirrkura. A group of senior women camped at this site, they gathered kampurarrpa (bush raisin), from the solanum centrale plant species common to Central Australia. The fruit is eaten directly from the plant and can also be ground into a flour and baked in the hot coals.

Naata depicts her homeland “ngura” as an aerial perspective and includes such features as the “tali” or sandhills, “puli” or rock outcrops and “punti” or vegetation.

LOT #66 Wentja Morgan Napaltjarri (1945 - ) Rockholes and Country, 2010 122.5 x 122 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $8,000 - 10,000 PROVENANCE Watiyawanu Artists, NT Cat No. 77-10541 Private Collection, NSW

This work depicts a Women’s site at an impor tant Rockhole near Tjukurla. The central roundel’s represent the rockholes as well as a ceremonial site. The lines in the centre represent sandhills. This site was impor tant for Wentja’s father, Shor ty Lungkata, who was a very prominent Papunya senior ar tist.

In contrast to her father’s work, Wentja’s paintings are less geometric with a softening of iconography through interlacing with intricate finely dotted patterning.

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LOT #67 Walangkurra (Uta Uta Tjangala’s widow) Napanangka (c. 1946 - ) Rockhole and Soakage of Lupul, 2003 137 x 122 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $8,000 - 12,000 PROVENANCE Papunya Tula Artists, NT Cat No. WN0310216 Private Collection, WA Accompanied by original Papunya Tula Artists documentation 72 |

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In mythological times a large group of ancestral women, represented by the ‘U’ Shapes, gathered at this site to perform the dances and sing the songs associated with the site. While at Lupul the women made hair-string for nyimparra (hair-string skirts) which are worn during these ceremonies.

The lines in the painting depict the surrounding tali (sandhills), the large kidney shape represents the rockhole at Lupul. The arc shapes depict the surrounding puli (rocky outcrops). Upon completion of the ceremonies, the women continued their travels north to a site near Nyirrpi. As they travelled, they gathered the fruit mangata (quandong) from the small tree Santalum acuminatum. The fleshy fruit, although somewhat tart, is highly nutritious and has a pleasant taste when ripe.

LOT #68 Hector Jandanay (c.1927 - 2006) Kawun (Ashes-Ashes), 1997 120 x 150 cm natural earth pigment on polyester canvas EST $7,000 - 9,000 PROVENANCE Narrangunny Art Traders, WA Cat No. N0178HC Kimberley Art, Vic Private Collection, Qld Accompanied by original Narrangunny Art documentation and images of Hector creating the artwork

An inspiration and delight to anyone who found the time to just sit and enjoy his company, Hector Jandanay gained renown for quirky figurative depictions and irregular hill formations rendered with an innate sense of spacial geometry. He would build the surface of his canvasses slowly and carefully treating the surface as if it were sacred, touching and rubbing his hand gently across it reverently.

In this work, his depiction of the ancestral owl spirits bears comparison to early Christian icons. Hector was a deep spiritual believer whose faith blended his Gidja upbringing and beliefs with his Christianity into a unique interpretation of Catholicism. He was sensitive to the spiritual meeting point between two vastly different traditions of religious practice and could enliven this cross fertilisation with an animated sense of humour.

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LOT #69 Freddie Timms (1946 - 2017) Wolf Crater, 1999 135 x 122 cm natural earth pigment on Belgian linen EST $8,000 - 12,000 PROVENANCE Our Land Gallery, Kununurra, WA Cat No. FT599.83 Corporate Collection, Vic 74 |

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In a career that spanned more than 20 years, Freddy Timms became known for aerial map-like visions of country that are less concerned with ancestral associations than with tracing the responses and refuges of the Gija people as they encountered the ruthlessness and brutality of colonisation. However, his political nature is characterised by more intimate interpretations of the experience rather than overtly political statements.

Freddie Timms is foremost amongst those Gija artists of the second generation. His was unique Gija perspective on the history of white interaction with his people. It is hard to think of another who expressed more poignantly through their art the sense of longing and the abiding loss that comes from the separation from land that embodies one’s spiritual home.

LOT #70 Rover Joolama Thomas (1926 - 1998) Great Sandy Desert - Canning Stock Route, 1996 105 x 209 cm 112 x 216.5 cm (framed) natural earth pigment and synthetic polymer resin on Belgian linen EST $20,000 - 25,000 PROVENANCE Outback Alive, Qld Cat No. OA846 Private Collection, Tas

This unique insight into the numinous landscape of the Kimberley region, and the human relationships and events that have become part of its history, celebrates the artist’s love of his spirit country, the Great Sandy Desert, and his deep connection to the landscape of his youth and adulthood. This mysteriously restful, yet haunting image gives us a window into the artist’s spiritual eye. In his true minimalist style, the Canning Stock Route, a black line bordered by white dots, surrounds and frames a richly vivid image of the Great Sandy Desert. Rover indicated that the sparse ethereal washed ground created in broad brushstrokes depicted sand patterns and changing lights in the vast desert landscape.

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LOT #71 Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (1932 - 2002) Untitled, c.1975 55 x 15 x 8 cm carved bean wood and watercolour EST $6,000 - 8,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, NT Private Collection, Vic Aranda Art, Vic Private Collection, Vic LITERATURE Rf. For similar works stylistically see Johnson V., Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Art Gallery of South Australia, Catalogue of the Solo Exhibition, 1980 pp 55 and 51 Clifford Possum and his brother Tim Leura were both master craftsmen, who created innovative carvings of snakes and goannas from the softwood, Inernt, (Erythrina vespertilio) often painting them in realistic colours and using shiny mulga seeds as eyes to enhance their vitality. Possum’s life-long fascination with space and form would later evolve into ambitious, twodimensional compositions on the surface of vast canvases, for which he is most famous.

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CLIFFORD POSSUM LOT #72

“I met Clifford Possum in the creek bed in Alice Springs in 1989 and invited him to exhibit his work in London the following year. ‘Can I meet the Queen’ was his first response and I answered ‘yes’ immediately without even thinking. Eight months later I picked him up at Heathrow and the first thing he said to me was ‘We go and see the Queen.’ I had forgotten my promise but thought the excitement of London would more than mitigate any disappointment. We drove past Buckingham Palace which I pointed out and he said ‘We go in.’ I then realised that actually he was set on meeting her and that as an elder statesman of his people he believed it was appropriate. I finally realised I had done a terrible thing in leading him on thoughtlessly. Back at the gallery I rang Buckingham Palace and met a stony response. Calls to the Embassy proved equally fruitless. At the private view a day later, a miracle happened. I told the story to a lovely elderly gentleman with a white beard who rang me at 8.30 am the following morning. ‘Rebecca, it’s George Harwood here,’ he said. ‘I’ve spoken to my cousin, the Queen, and she would be delighted to see you and Mr Possum at the palace at 2.30 this afternoon.’ We rushed off to Moss Bros. to hire him a Top Hat and tails. He stuck a paintbrush in to his hatband and painted his tennis shoes with Possum Dreamings. There was a media frenzy and we had a private audience with the Queen and Prince Phillip. Clifford told me it was his number one day, he was incredibly happy and we had the most wonderful time. He was also intrigued to find Pitjuri in the Queen’s garden and pointed it out to Princess Anne later when she joined us in the garden after the private audience. Over the ensuing weeks Clifford turned the guest bedroom in my house into a studio and painted a number of paintings including one on the bedroom door. He finished a painting for the Queen, which she accepted as a gift and which is now in her private collection at Buckingham Palace, and another which I kept for my own collection.” Rebecca Hossack, London, 2005

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LOT #72 Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (1932 - 2002) Untitled (Ceremony at Mount Allan), 1989/1990 296 x 128 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $70,000 - 90,000

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PROVENANCE This work, which depicts a number of Dreamings, was begun in Alice Springs in 1989 and completed in London in 1990. It was a gift to Rebecca Hossack after she arranged an audience between the artist and HRH Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip. The assistance of family members is evident in this work.

Lawson Menzies, Aboriginal Art, Sydney, Nov 2005, Lot No. 147 Private Collection, Vic

EXHIBITED Bedford City Art Gallery and Museum, UK Hexham Regional Art Gallery, Northumberland, UK Australian High Commission, UK Barbican City Art Gallery, UK LITERATURE Rf. For an account of Clifford Possum’s trip to London and his meeting with Queen Elizabeth II see Johnson V., Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Art Gallery of South Australia, pp169-171 INDIGENOUS FINE ART

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LOT #73 Emily Kame Kngwarreye (1910 - 1996) Arlatyeye (Wildflower Dreaming), 1996 98 x 138 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $25,000 - 35,000 PROVENANCE Utopia Batik and Art, NT Cat No. EKK028 Soul of Australia Aboriginal Art, NSW Cat No. 8183 Private Collection, NSW signed ‘Emily’ verso Accompanied by a hand written certificate from Utopia Batik and Art

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Emily Kngwarreye’s paintings of wildflowers reflect a stage in the growth cycle of the wild yam. Emily’s middle name, Kame, is taken from the yam Dreaming site at Alhalkere. The nutritional value of the yam is hidden underground, in the swollen roots and their pod-like attachments which are difficult to locate as the plant’s unpredictable growth patterns make harvest complicated and specialised. Traditionally, much effort is expended across large areas in the harvest of this valuable food.

This work was commissioned by Allan Glaetzer, the store manager at Utopia. Glaetzer went on to set up Utopia Batik with the Community Council, which ran for nearly four years through the early 1990s. Later, he worked for the Central Land Council.

Emily Kngwarreye Image Credit | Tara Ebbs INDIGENOUS FINE ART | 81

LOT #74 Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (1932 - 2002) Three Dreamings (triptych), 1995 43 x 132 cm 52 x 142 cm (framed) synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen

and realistic detail. He did not join the growing band of active painters working at Papunya until 1972.

PROVENANCE Painted at Fireworks Gallery during artist residency, Qld Private Collection, Qld

His early paintings conveyed a remarkable sense of atmosphere.

These stood out from those of other Western and Central Desert artists, who were less preoccupied with evoking a psychological mood in their paintings. As he developed his art practice, Clifford introduced Western iconography and figurative imagery to convey certain elements in his narratives.

This played a dual role in both making them more intelligible to western audiences, and allowing him to create imaginative compositions within the parameters of the ‘law’.

Clifford Possum began his artistic career in the 1950s at Glen Helen, when he found that he earned more pay and lived under better conditions while producing carvings for the developing tourist market than he had as a stockman. His carvings were renowned in Central Australia for their brilliant craftsmanship

This triptych was created a during the 1990s. The image on the left relates to a Men’s Hunting story; the central is a portrait of a woman in ceremonial guise; and the panel on the right is a bush food image with the foot prints of women collecting seeds from the Spinifex grass to make damper.

EST $12,000 - 15,000

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LOT #75 Jack Britten (c. 1921 - 2001) Toolookininji - Looking Out, 1998 54 x 142 cm natural earth pigments on back of a fly screen door EST $4,000 - 6,000 PROVENANCE Narrangunny Art Traders, WA Cat No. NAT0438 Kimberley Art, Vic Private Collection, WA signed ‘Jack’ verso

Jack Britten was born and spent his childhood at Tickelara Station, in the north west of Australia, at a time when many Gija people were massacred during the gold rush at Hall’s Creek and Chinaman’s Garden in the East Kimberley region. He was the traditional owner of the Bungle Bungle ranges.

This site is on the Old Hann Springs cattle station where Jack once worked as a stockman. Depicted is the high ‘top country’ where cattle and wild animals grazed side by side. Also shown is the black limestone ridge (Booloo) that traverses the landscape and the caves (Nawanji), which contain the remains of ritually interred ancestors.

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LOT #76 Rover Joolama Thomas (1926 - 1998) Hills at Bottle Tree Creek, 1995 45 x 60 cm natural earth pigment and binder on linen EST $4,000 - 6,000 PROVENANCE Warringarri Aboriginal Arts Kununura, WA Cat No. AP 0423 Cooee Art Gallery, NSW Cat No. 620 Private Collection, Qld Signed by the artist verso EXHIBITED Painting up the Country, Cooee Art Gallery, Sydney April - May 1995, Cat No. 18 84 |

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Thomas began painting in his 50s, after spending forty years as a stockman. ‘I been all over, me,’ he said, when describing his intimate knowledge and involvement with the vast expanses of sparse desert and Kimberley terrain. He settled at Warmun in 1975.

He began painting as an individual artist in 1981 and his lead soon sparked a spiritual and cultural revival within the community, gradually expanding its influence and establishing the distinctive East Kimberley painting style as exemplified by this small work in which he depicted one of the many camping sites he visited on his peripatetic travels.

LOT #77 Lena Nyadbi (1936 - ) Joori Joordji, 2001 80 x 100 cm natural earth pigment and binder on linen EST $5,000 - 7,000 PROVENANCE Warmun Art Centre, WA Cat No. WAC835/01 Private Collection, Qld Lawson Menzies, Aboriginal Art, Sydney, June 2006, Lot No. 136 Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by original Warmun Art Centre documentation

Lena Nyadbi was born around 1936 in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. Though the East Kimberley art movement began in the late 1970s, Nyadbi was working on the Old Lissadel Station and did not become an artist until 1998.

Her motifs are derived from the sharp rocky landscape of her father’s country at Jimbala. In simplifying her canvases, refining her use of colour, and carefully playing with tonal shifts across a single ochre colour, she creates both a resonance, and tension with compelling visual finesse.

Nyadbi’s powerful Jimbala motifs adorn the exterior of the Musee de Quay Branly in Paris.

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Krill Krill Ceremony Image Credit | Neil McLoud 86 |

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Queenie McKenzie Image Credit | Neil McLoud INDIGENOUS FINE ART

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LOT #78 Paddy Jampin Jaminji (c1912 - 1996) Bedford Hills, 1979 40 x 77 cm (irregular) 53 x 91 cm (mounted/framed in glass) natural earth pigments on construction plywood EST $3,000 - 5,000 PROVENANCE Neil McLeod, field collected, Kimberley, WA Burrinja Gallery, Dandenong Ranges, Vic Private Collection, Tas 88 |

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Paddy Jaminji was born on Bedford Downs station in the North East Kimberley and spent most of his life working as a stockman on both Bedford Downs and Old Lissadell Stations. He was the first painter in Turkey Creek after a strike by Kimberley station workers in the mid 1970s signalled a mass Aboriginal exodus from cattle properties. Uncle to Rover Thomas, he was the inspiration behind Rover’s decision to paint and went on to inspire many others including Lena Nyadbi. This dance board was painted at Bedford Station and collected by Neil McLeod during a field trip researching sites for a book on David Mowaljarlai in 1981.

LOT #79 Rover Joolama Thomas (1926 - 1998) Wolf Creek Crater, 1996 61 x 91 cm 64 x 94 cm (framed) synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $18,000 - 22,000 PROVENANCE Warmun Traditional Artists, WA Cat No. RT0030 Private Collection, Vic signed Rover verso Accompanied by original Warmun authentication

In this lovely small work, Rover Thomas re-imagines one of his favourite places on the edge of the Gibson Desert, the Wolf Creek Crater. Alongside it is one of the rare but reliable all-yearround springs to be found in the area. The crater itself abounds with Dreamtime myths and legends.

Rover’s paintings draw the viewer into spacious planes of painterly applied and textured ochre. In this work, the white dots serve only to create emphasis and draw the eye along pathways of time and movement, following the forms of the land in which important events are encoded. Warm and earthy ochres, along with the palpable sense of spirituality, invite the viewer to consider the unfolding of important events at this place, while at the same time placing the viewer within an ancient and timeless landscape.

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LOT #80 Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (1933 - 2002) Napperby Dreaming, 1998 122 x 134 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $40,000 - 50,000 PROVENANCE Commissioned directly from the artist.

Private Collection, Vic Private Collection, USA This important, beautifully drafted work depicts the Water Dreaming for Clifford Possum’s Tjampaltjarri skin group. The artist has painted the symbols for Rainbows , lightning, running water, clouds and hailstones. It is the continuation of Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula’s Water Dreaming story but it changes 90 |

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custodianship over to Tjapaltjarri/Tjungarrayi at a point north west of Yuendumu. It is the ancestral origin of all the rain that falls in the Western Desert. The striped composition on the macro level is a reference to the post storm rainbow.

The story related by the artist takes place at Niritjaladi, a cave site in a ‘mountain’ about 50 kilometres west of Mount Allan.

A Tjungurrayi man had a lot of kungas (women). All the young women wanted him. Other men were upset and took off, leaving him behind knowing that he had sought shelter in a cave.

They took this news and summoned others saying ‘This fella here - all the women was singing for him every night - this fella dancing with shield and boomerang - all the young kungas love him - only one’.

The men sent a cloud to the secret cave. Tungurrayi saw the cloud to the north. Lightning came close, struck and killed him.

The kungas still sing for him at night to this day.

LOT #81 Ningura Napurrula (c.1938 - 2013) Women’s Ceremony at Wirrulnga, 2007 160 x 195cm synthetic polymer paint on canvas EST $15,000 - 20,000 PROVENANCE Aboriginal Art World, NT Cat No. AAWWNINNA0003 Ochre Gallery, Vic Private Collection, Vic Ningura Naparrula began painting in her own right in the second year of the Haasts Bluff/Kintore women’s painting camp.

Her dynamic compositions are characterised by strong linear designs, which are slowly built up through intricate patterning and appear boldly defined upon a background of dense,

monochromatic in-filling. Her focus centres upon her female ancestors who travelled the vast country, creating sacred sites and establishing customs and ceremonies.

In this work women are depicted sitting either side of nulla nulla’s that they have used to catch goanna for everyone’s tucker. Larger circles radiating outwards represent women’s hair twirled and plaited onto the top of the heads in order to carry food and water. Thickly layered acrylic paint emphasises an earthy substantiality.The visual intensity of the uncomplicated yet detailed line work draws contiguous shapes into a dynamic harmony. One senses the moment as the earth awaits new life.

Ningura was one of the eight Australian artists selected to showcase at Musee du Quai Branly, in Paris.

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LOT #82 Emily Kame Kngwarreye (1910 - 1996) Untitled (Anooralya Yam), 1994 121 x 91 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $15,000 - 18,000 PROVENANCE Delmore Gallery, NT Cat No. 94G015 Corporate Collection, Vic Reflected in this work is the AnooralyaYam, the most important plant in Emily’s custodianship. This hardy and fertile plant provides both a tuber vegetable and a seed bearing flower called Kame (Emily’s tribal name).The visual evidence of maturing species is no cause for alarm in terms of survival, for the yam tuber can always be found where cracks in the earth’s surface indicate its presence underground.

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From an aerial perspective we see sporadic clustered growth after summer rain. We also look on this exciting work as a water catchment area. The rain falls and water slowly flows along the broad shallow watercourse and replenishes the soakage at Alalgura. The flourish of growth that follows is exceptional and rapid.

Ceremony reinforces, through narrative, the significance of this knowledge, by teaching survival skills and knowledge, basic social codes and obligations.

LOT #83 Eubena Nampitjin (1924 - 2013) Yuratjadda Rock Hole, 1992 99.5 x 74.5 cm synthetic polymer paint on canvas EST $4,000 - 6,000 PROVENANCE Warlayirti Artists, WA Cat No. 402/92 Private Collection, ACT Mossgreen Auctions - The Alan Boxer Collection, March 2015 Lot. 35 Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by original Warlayirti Artists documentation

Eubena Nampitjin was of the older generation that left the desert as mature adults. The majority of her early paintings relate strongly to her land and are expressed from a personal or experiential perspective.

In this typical early work, she depicts Yuratjadda Rock Hole and the surrounding countryside with the many bush foods that are available. These include Boora (bush tomato) and many grass seeds such as Binalbi, Lunkunba and Gibring which are ground to a paste and then cooked on the hot coals to make a type of damper.

Later, during the mid 1990s and beyond, Eubena’s works became far less descriptive of country as she experimented with soft floral patterns and colour, transforming the complex dotting and compositions that characterised her earlier paintings into delicately beautiful and opulent works.

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LOT #84 Boxer Milner (c.1934 - 2008) Djaringarra, 2004 100 x 100 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $6,000 - 8,000 PROVENANCE Warlayirti Artists, WA Cat No. 320/04 John Gordon Gallery, NSW Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by original Warlayirti Artists documentation 94 |

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This work depicts a ceremonial re-enactment of the creation story of Djaringarra, a site found along the central sections of Purkitji (Sturt Creek). Boomerangs that were carved by the artist were used as a stencil to create the painting. These boomerangs are ‘clapped’ during dancing in men’s ceremony itself.The circles represent tjurrnu (rockholes) which occur after the waters of Purkitji have receded following the wet season.

Boxer Milner’s unique aesthetic was informed by his intimate knowledge of all the facets of the river system. His paintings all depict different physical and mythological aspects of the middle and upper stretches of Sturt Creek.

LOT #85 Jimmy Pike (1940 - 2002) Paparta Waterhole, c.1990s 118 x 90 cm synthetic polymer paint on canvas EST $2,200 - 2,600 PROVENANCE Purchased at an exhibition to raise funds for Environs Kimberley.

Private Collection, USA signed J Pike verso Accompanied by certificate supplied by Pat Lowe 30.6.09 EXHIBITED Jimmy Pike, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London, 1998

According to legend, Paparta used to be like a man before he turned into a waterhole - a waterhole that is most often dry, in the shape of a man. He was staying at Warnti with his two wives.

He looked after all the people and carried water for them in his coolamon. When they complained he poured water on the ground to punish them. When other people sent food the old man ate it all himself. The people were starving and got angry and killed him with their boomerangs.Today the waterhole is dry with trees standing all around it where the people once stood.

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LOT # 86 Peter Mondjinju, (c. 1928 - 1995) Birrkili Dreaming, c.1969 66 x 44 cm natural earth pigments on stringy bark EST $2,500 - 3,500 PROVENANCE Painted in Milingimbi, Arnhem Land, NT Jim Davidson, Vic, 1989 Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Vic Cat No. 891522 Private Collection, Vic EXHIBITED Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art: A Myriad of Dreaming, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, 18 September - 1st October 1989 Westpac Gallery,Victorian Art Centre,Vic, 4th - 22nd October 1989 Design Warehouse, Surry Hills, NSW, 21st November 1989 -1990 Telling the Stories, From the Kimberley to Yirrkala, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne, May - June 2012, Cat. No. 31 LITERATURE Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art: A Myriad of Dreaming, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, 1989, p.32 pl.27

LOT #87 Dundiwuy Wanambi (c.1936 - 1996) Goanna associated with Wuyal Myth, 1986 82 x 28 cm natural earth pigments on stringy bark EST $2,000 - 2,500 PROVENANCE Buku Larrngay Arts, NT Cat No. 0721/B Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by an original Buku Larrngay Arts certificate tag In this painting freshwater goanna are depicted with freshwater mussels in their mouth (Djarrwiti). The black object in the middle is a sacred ceremonial ground (Mulk). The Rock Wallaby at the top is associated with Wuyal, the Wild Honey Ancestral being who travelled in the same country as the Wagilag sisters.

Wuyal is responsible for establishing a number of totemic sites and sacred emblems. Dots represent air bubbles coming out from the goanna.

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LOT #88 Bungawuy Djalambu (1922 - 1982) Djan’kawu Story, c.1962 98 x 56 cm natural earth pigments on stringy bark EST $3,000 - 4,000 PROVENANCE Painted at Milingimbi Crocodile Islands Central Arnhem Land, NT Private Collection, Vic Sotheby’s, Aboriginal Art, Sydney, June 2000, Lot No. 219 Private collection, NSW This painting represents the sacred creation myth of the Gupapuyngu people - the Djan”kawu Sisters. The story of their landing in a canoe on the north east coast of Arnhem Land and their subsequent travels is recorded in this symbolic painting.The black and red squares (centre) represent the sacred waterholes where the sisters gathered shellfish and the site where men’s sacred ceremonies take place. The bands and triangles of the cross hatching are the waters feeding the sacred waterholes whilst the bands and triangles of yellow cross hatching indicate the sandy banks of the creeks and rivers in the country in which they travelled and hunted. The whole story runs parallel to the sacred Wagilag Sisters myth of the Liyagalawumirri.

LOT #89 Dr David Daymirringu Malangi (1927 - 1999) Women Hunting - Gurrunirringgu Myth, c.1985 93.5 x 64 cm natural earth pigment on stringy bark EST $3,000 - 5,000 PROVENANCE Purchased between 1971-1972 from the Millingimbi craft shop by a nurse working for the NT government Aerial Medical Service.

Private Collection, NSW In this singular work by Malangi are depicted two pairs of creative female spirits. One set is of the Yirritja (Yang - sunset) moiety (his mother’s Balmbi-language people) and the other is associated with his own Manyarrngu (people of the mangroves) - they are the Djang’kawu sisters.

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LOT #90 Artist Once Known Two Tiwi Pukumani Poles, c.1950 53 x 10 x 10 cm 64 x 12 x 12 cm natural earth pigments on ironwood EST $5,000 - 7,000 PROVENANCE Field Collected, Melville Islands, NT c.1950 Private collection, NSW Pukumani poles (Tutini) are made in the Tiwi Islands north of Darwin, NT, for the traditional enactment of mortuary ceremonies. A funeral ceremony is conducted after a person dies and has been buried. It is usually conducted during the dry season from May to November when the Tiwi burn off the grasses. Several poles are commissioned by the in-laws of the deceased and placed around the grave.Tutini represent the body of the dead person and during the ceremony are thought to hold their spirit.The deceased person is farewelled through song and dance as they transition into the spirit world. Following the ceremony, the poles are left to disintegrate through exposure to the elements and termites, and thus represent the impermanence of the earthly body and the transition of the spirit from the secular to the temporal realm.

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LOT #91 Bobby Bardjurai Nganjmirra (1915 - 1992) Luma Luma, the giant with Dilly Bag, 1988 161 x 56 cm natural earth pigments on stringy bark EST $3,500 - 4,500 PROVENANCE Dorothy Bennett, created at Oenpelli, NT Cat No. 2905 Private Collection, Vic Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Dorothy Bennett Bobby Ngainjmirra was a great leader amongst the Kunwinjku people. An inventive and brilliant painter he spent his life dedicated to passing on his stories and tradition to a whole generation of artists who have followed him. In this impressive work he depicts Luma Luma, who is said to have created many of the ancestors of contemporary humans and to have placed them in their respective clan territories. His body was cut into pieces that transformed into the sacred objects used by Western Arnhem Land people in ceremony to this day.

Bobby Bardjurai Nganjmirra Image Credit | Neil McLeod

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LOT #92 Charlie Brinkin (1910 -1993) Men’s Ceremony, c.1950 66 x 30 cm (irregular) natural earth pigments on stringy bark

PROVENANCE Painted at Wadeye, Port Keats, NT c. 1950 Private Collection, NSW

A member of the Nirwili clan, his ceremonial responsibilities covered an area from the northern coast as far south as Lajamanu in the north Tanami Desert. For this reason bark paintings by Charlie Brinkin display the same iconography as the early Pintupi painters at Papunya such as Kaapa, Clifford Possum, Tim Leura & Billy Stockman.

Charlie Brinkin spent most of his adult life at Port Keats before moving in 1978 to live at Hyland Bay at the Moyle River mouth. He began painting sometime immediately after WWII and continued all his life to produce distinctive lyrical figurative oval barks. Brinkin was an informant & friend of renowned anthropologist WEH (Bill) Stanner during his field work over 40 years.

This bark contains many of these elements. Brinkin depicts the figure of a man swinging a bullroarer, a Port Essington fish tail fighting club, and a didgeridoo, men’s ceremonial law boards and punishment spears. This ritual ground mosaic map is painted on bark and appears to predate, by several decades, the Western Desert art movement that began in the early 1970s.

EST $1,500 - 2,500

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LOT #93 Sam Tjampitjin (1930 - 2004) Country - Great Sandy Desert, 1999 90 x 60 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $3,000 - 4,000 PROVENANCE Warlayirti Artists, WA Cat No. 975/99 Cooee Art Gallery, NSW Private Collection, NSW Sam Tjampitjin was an incredibly gifted artist and one of Balgo’s finest male painters. While his works may not have been mythic in their cartographic complexity like those of Wimmitji or Donkeyman Lee, they conveyed, as with those of his elder brother Sunfly Tjampitjin, the inherent power located within specific sites. All his works emenate the artist’s sense of the power of the land.

This painting depicts many parallel sand dunes (tali) and the underground water that links two rockholes deep in the Great Sandy Desert. These rockholes were formed by the activities of powerful Tingari beings. These beings have left powers in the land that are told of in Men’s Law. Sam Tjampitjin’s legacy, as part of the first generation of Balgo Artists, is as profound as the deep wellsprings of his knowledge, and his standing as a senior custodian and participant in sacred Men’s Law. INDIGENOUS FINE ART

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LOT #94 Maggie Watson Napangardi (1921 - 2004) Mina Mina Dreaming, 1999 40 x 65.5 cm 43 x 68.5 cm (framed) synthetic polymer paint on canvas EST $2,500 - 3,500 PROVENANCE Ngintaka Arts, NT Kimberley Art, Vic Cat No. KA748/99 Private Collection, Tas 102 |

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Maggie Watson began painting at 60 and became the senior female artist at Yuendumu by the time of her death in 2004.

Though she created paintings for 15 years and was never a prolific artist, she was a leader amongst a group of women artists who began to challenge the dominance of men’s acrylic painting in the Central Desert region from the mid 1980s. The emergence of these women in Yuendumu and simultaneously in Utopia (amongst Anamtjerre and Alyawarre peoples) challenged the notion that men were the sole guardians of the visual life of these communities.

This small work, created for her son-in-law, depicts sites in the Mina Mina region west of Yuendumu.

LOT #95 Bessie Nakamarra Simms (1932 - ) Ngalyajiyi, 2003 150 x 60 cm synthetic polymer paint on canvas EST $2,500 - 3,500 PROVENANCE Warlukulangu Artists, NT Cat No. 248/03 Private Collection, New York, USA Accompanied by original Warlukurlangu Artists documentation This painting depicts the Pamapardu Jukurrpa (Flying Ant Dreaming) from Wapurtali, west of Yuendumu. ‘Pamapardu’ is the Warlpiri name for the flying ants or termites that build the large anthills found throughout Warlpiri country. This country belongs to Nakamarra/Napurrurla women and Jakamarra/ Jupurrurla men. ‘Pamapardu’ are flying ants. They build earth mounds (‘mingkirri’) that are common in the Tanami area. When heavy rains come in summer the ‘mingkirri’ get flooded out, so the ‘pamapardu’ grow wings and fly off to make new homes, following their queens to dry mounds. When they have found their new home they drop their wings. In this stage they can be collected, lightly cooked in coals and eaten. As they fall to the ground women collect them. In contemporary Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, particular sites and other elements. When this Jukurrpa story is painted concentric circles are used to represent the ‘mingkirri’ and the rockholes involved in the story, including the central one at Wapurtali (Mt Singleton). Dashes are often depicted around the circles to represent the ‘pamapardu’.

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LOT #96 Judy Napangardi Watson (c.1925 - 2016) Mina Mina - Hair String, 2015 106 x 76 cm 109 x 79 cm (framed) synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen

PROVENANCE Warlukurlangu Artists, NT Cat No. 30381/15 Private Collection, Vic

These ancestral women danced with enthusiasm and great enjoyment. The potent life force with which they imbued the country is evoked in Judy’s love of colour and richly textured rippling surface. Painted in the artist’s distinct ‘dragged’ dotting style, Judy mimics the dance of her ancestors across the country during its creation.

The principle focus in Judy Watson’s art was the women’s Dreaming of the Karnta-kurlangu, a large number of ancestral women who danced across the land, creating important sites, discovering plants, foods and medicines and establishing the ceremonies that would perpetuate their generative powers.

The sinuous lines in this work represent ngalyipi, snake vine, a rope-like creeper made into rope and used to carry objects during their travels. The circles are jintiparnta, edible truffle, which the women gathered for sustenance on their long journey which eventually took them beyond Waripiri country.

EST $4,000 - 5,000

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LOT #97 Tommy Mitchell (1943 - 2013) Ngatum Tingari Tjukurrpa, 2007 101 x 51 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen EST $3,000 - 5,000 PROVENANCE Papulankutja Artists, WA Cat No. 140-07 Alcaston Gallery, Vic Cat No. AK13637 Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by original Warakurna Artists documentation Tommy Mitchell was born near Blackstone in WA and lived in Warakurna where he was a senior lawman and major painter in his 70s at the end of his life. His country was Nganturn and Walu.

In his canvas paintings, Tommy Mitchell had the ability to evoke a sense of the elemental forces of nature that complimented the physical and ancestral aspects of the landscape. He was raised in the traditional manner living off the land with his family in the harsh environs of the Gibson Desert. He grew to be a ceremonial leader among the Ngaanyatjarra people. Apart from painting, Tommy Mitchell was also renowned for carving ceremonial weapons.

This painting depicts sacred men’s Tingari sites on his father’s country .

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LOT #98 Ginger Riley Munduwalawala (c.1936 - 2002) Djartabaramba, 1994 67 x 50 cm (image) 76 x 56 cm (paper) limited edition screenprint, P/P, Edn. 60 EST $1,200 - 1,500 PROVENANCE Editioned Shaike Snir Studio, Vic Gift from the artist Private Collection, Vic 106 |

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This work was inspired by Ginger Riley’s mother’s country, the area surrounding four pyramidal hills, the Four Arches, some 45 kilometres inland from the Gulf of Carpentaria on the Limmen Bight River. Ginger’s iconography was informed by the sequence of events that took place there. According to legend, the Four Arches were created by a lethal taipan, the Garimala, who traveled from far away and returned to live in a waterhole he created nearby. From here he journeyed to the Limmen Bight River, turning into the Rainbow and thus it is believed he is present during the oncoming of the wet season. Apart from this central narrative, a recurring image in Riley’s work was the striking Ngak Ngak, a white-breasted sea eagle said to be the guardian of this country.

LOT #99 Clifton Mack (1952 - ) Millstream Waterholes, 2011 83 x 159 cm 86.5 x 161 cm (framed) synthetic polymer paint on canvas EST $800 - 1,200 PROVENANCE Yinjaa-Barni Art, WA Cat No. 1164-11 Japingka Gallery, WA Cat No. 008147 Private Collection, Tas

Clifton Mack is an elder of the Yindjibarndi people. He started painting works related to his Pilbara country and its stories in 2001. His father, the revered Yindjibarndi rainmaker Long Mack, carried the knowledge of water for his people.

Knowledge of water, its locations, seasons, and an intimate understanding of the freshwater-bringing serpent Warlu, is a fundamental tenet of Yindjibarndi lore. Much of Clifton’s work relates to water and its flow through Yindjibarndi country.

Experimenting with colour, he often layers patterns over each other to add dimension and depth and achieves optical effects by painting one entire story on top of another.

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