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Mick Jawalji

 


Age: 83 years
Subsection Skin: Jangala
Language: Gija and Andayin
Born: Yulumbu
Biography
Mick Jawalji was born at Yulumbu, in western Gija country, around 1920, just before the establishment of Tableland cattle station. Yulumbu is the Gija name for the place where the Tableland station airstrip is.

Jawalji is the senior traditional owner of the Ban.gurr part of Gija country. Ban.gurr is the name of the huge flat topped hill, on the way to the Tableland homestead. Ban. gurr is called Black person hill in English. Ban.gurr is in the western part of Gija country, a long way from Warmun.

Exhibitions

 

Jawalji's father was one of the main workers who built the Tableland station homestead. Jawalji grew up on Yulumbu and learnt stock work. Like most old Aboriginal people in the Kimberley he worked with cattle, doing mustering and droving. As well as being head stockman, he was also a good horse breaker. Jawalji and his stockman drove cattle from
Tableland to the Glenroy meatworks and as far away as Derby and Wyndham.
While he was living and working in his country Jawalji learnt about all the places in his country. He learnt about the stories of these places and the meanings of the rock paintings found there. Each wet season he and his people would meet to do law, sometimes walking as far as Mt House station. This helped maintain their country and culture.

Jawalji also spent a lot of time working on Mornington, a station west of Yulumbu. He lived with the Andayin people and learnt much about Andayin law and culture from his step - father and mother. Jawalji speaks for Andayin country, now that the traditional owner has passed away.

As well as Tableland and Mornington stations, Jawalji also worked at Fossil Downs, Brooking Springs, Mabel Downs and Landsdowne stations.

Since retiring Jawalji has lived in a couple of communities. He now lives in Imintji community, on the Gibb River Road, 220km east of Derby. He only started painting on canvas a few years ago. Before that he painted on cardboard. He has experimented with both ochre and acrylic on board and canvas. He has only recently started painting for the
Warmun Art Centre. His paintings feature places in his Ban.gurr country and dreamtime stories of those places.

This means that the subject matter of Jawalji's paintings is somewhat different to the other Warmun artists. Jawalji's offsider Barney Yu also lives at Imintji. He is an acclaimed painter and paints under his Aboriginal name, Ngara.

Themes:
West Gija country and landforms
Traditional Ngarrangkarni (Dreaming) stories
Ban.gurr and Yulumbu Country

Medium:
Natural ochre on canvas
Natural ochre on ply board

Exhibitions
2003 ARTPLACE, ‘Texas Downs, Jarlarloo & Yunurrl Country’ with Patrick Mung Mung - Perth, W.A.