Born: c1920
Skin Group: Jangkarti
Country: Jalnganjoowa
Language: Gooniyandi / Kija

Exhibitions

• Janangoo-Imanara-Gooniyandi
• Same Name Imanara, One Place Imanara
• This is still my country... 10 years on...

Butcher Cherel Janangoo was born around 1920 at Jalnganjoowa. This is near the original homestead on one of the longest established cattle stations in the Kimberley, Fossil Downs. He now lives in town at Fitzroy Crossing.

His mother was Kija and his father, Gooniyandi. He speaks both of these languages as well as some Walmajarri and Bunuba. Both of his parents worked on the station in and around the homestead and he recalls being taken out bush for walkabout and at law time. With the two of them working on the station, it follows that Butcher also spent most of his working life on Fossil Downs. As a stockman he worked cattle, droving from Fitzroy Crossing to Derby and Broome. This time was hard as he remembers “real hard”. He says that he lost his law for a while as a young adult whilst working on the station, however he has maintained his understanding of traditional lessons received from his parents and grandparents.

Butcher is a key elder of the Gooniyandi language group and has been instrumental in the retention of Law ceremony at Muludja Community. He sees Aboriginal Law and language as fundamentally important and feels uneasy that young people today do not have this tradition to refer to as they have not been educated as he was.

These paintings are not about Law. Sufficient time has now passed since the early central desert outpourings, for Aboriginal artists to be aware of the dangers of over divulgence. Rather, the works provide glimpses of his cultural and physical environment. As he stated, “With my eyes, my heart and with my brain I am thinking. When I go to sleep nighttime, I might talk to myself, ‘ah, I might do [paint] that one tomorrow’, not dreaming; I think about what to do next.” (1996).


Solo Exhibitions
2003 “Same Name Imanara, One Place Imanara”, Artplace
2002 “Imanara”. Raft Artspace, Darwin 2001
“Janangoo-Imanara-Gooniyandi”, Artplace, Perth 2000
“Imanara Country”, Artplace, Perth
1999 “Imanara - Big country”, Festival of Perth, Artplace, Perth
1998 “Gamba Malarni Dagoola”, Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
1997 “Joonany garra mi yoodila” (I put it good way), Artplace Perth
1996 Durak Gallery, Broome
1993 “Parntapi Bilnga”, Artplace, Perth (with Peter Skipper)
1992 Birukmarri Gallery, Fremantle

Group Exhibitions
2004 “This is still my country... 10 years on...” Perth International Arts Festival- Artplace, Perth
2003 Jumu, Jiwari & Wirrkuja”, Cullity Gallery, University of Western Australia
2002 Artplace Group Show 2002
Melbourne Art Fair
City of joondalup invitation Art Prize
2001 “Mangkaja Arts, Ten Years Anniversary”, Tandanya, Adelaide
“ Butcher Cherel, Tommy May, John Nargoodah, Mervyn Street”, Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
2000 Artplace Christmas show
Side by Side, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
“ Proof Positive; limited edition prints by Leading Australian Artists”, Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
1999 “Story Boards”, ceramic tiles from the Kimberley, Fremantle Art Centre
1998 Artplace Christmas Show, Artplace, Perth
“Artplace at 101”, Gallery 101, Melbourne
City of Joondalup Art Award, Perth
Mangkaja Survey Show, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London
1997 Heritage Commission Art Award, Old Parliament House, Canberra
1996 “Mangkaja”, Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide
Heritage Commission Art Award, Old Parliament House, Canberra
1995 “Old Mangkaja New Prints”, Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
1994 Fremantle Print Award, Fremantle Arts Centre
1993-97 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Northern Territory Art Gallery and Museum
1994 “This is my Country”, Festival of Perth, Artplace, Perth
1993 “Images of Power”, National Gallery of Australia

Awards
1993 RAKA award at Melbourne University (finalist)

Publications and reviews
2003 Simon Blond, “Asking the big questions” In the picture, The West Australian, 19th July
Judith McGrath, “New Works by Butcher Cherel Janangoo” Reviews, p175, Australian Art Collector, Issue 25
"Martuwarra & Jila, Jumu, Jiwari & Wirrkuja”, Exhibition catalogue, Cullity Gallery, UWA
2002 Philippa O’Brien, “Land, Poetry, Power” Artlink, Vol. 22 #3
2001 Big Weekend, The West Australian, 19 August
2000 Ted Snell, “Dreaming of life on the station”, The Australian, 19 February
David Bromfield, “Art for art’s sake”,big weekend, The West Australian, Aug. 26
1999 J McGrath, “Butcher Cherel Janangoo, Julie Dowling, Julie Gough”, Artlink, 19:2
Bruce James, radio review, Radio National, “Arts today”, 19 February
Andrew Nichols, “Perth Festival: Unfolding from the margins”, Real Time, Apr-May
Andrew Nichols, “Arts”, Westside Observer, 19 February
Ted Snell, “Right balance in a cultural feast”, The Australian, 19 February
David Bromfield, “Festival offers visual lucky dip”, West Australian, 20 February
“Imanara” exhibition catalogue, (FOP), Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency
1997 “Painting with eyes, heart and brain”, Local News, 23 April
David Bromfield, “On show”, The West Australian, 26 April
1993 “Painters show their style”, The West Australian, 8 September
1992 “Cooniyandi kija”, exhibiton catalogue, Birukmarri Gallery, Fremantle

Collections
National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Holmes a Court Collection, Aboriginal Affairs Department, Art Gallery of WA, Kerry Stokes Collection, Curtin University, University of Western Australia, Lions Eye Institute, City of Wanneroo, Artbank-Sydney.