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Mawukura
is a Walmajarri man. His country is around Wayampajarti, a Jila
(a permanent waterhole) in the north-western area of the Great
Sandy Desert. He was born near a waterhole called Wili, at a swamp
called Miyitinynanguwu. He calls the names of places such as Tapu,
Kurrjalpartu, Kayalijarti, Kurraly Kurraly, Walypa, Wayampajarti,
Kumpujarti and Witikarrijarti as the main waterholes in his country.
He grew up in the desert moving around these waterholes.
Mawukura was ‘nearly a man’ 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
Lumpu and then went back to the desert with his father in law,
where he lived for around five more years. The police came around
there once, he says, but they did not pick him up, they gave him
food. The police continued on but they were frightened by kalpurtu
so they kept going, straight back to town. The same police picked
up Huey Bent and took him to Cherrabun Station not long after.
Mawukura eventually left the bush, possibly in the early sixties.
After coming in from the desert, Jimmy spent most of his time working
on Nerrimah Station.
Solo
exhibitions
2004 ‘Ngurrala Marna Kitpungani
- Walking Through Country’, Fortyfivedownstairs,
Melbourne
2003 ‘Jilawarnti’ Artplace,
Perth
2001 Jila wanti, Jumu wanti & Pirntirri, Artplace Perth
1999 Kumpujarti Jila, Artplace, Perth
1994 Artplace Perth
Reflections
of the Kimberley Gallery, Derby
1993 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
Group
exhibitions
2002 Melbourne Art Fair 2002
2001 ‘Ngurrara Canvas’ national Gallery of Australia
Framed Gallery, Darwin
Cooee Gallery, Sydney
1999 16th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander
Art Award, Darwin
Aboriginal Kunst aus West Australian, Galerie Gaswerk, Germany
Cooee Gallery, Sydney with Peter Skipper
1994 ACAF-4, Fourth Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Melbourne
Eight Western Australian Artists, The Blaxland Gallery, Sydney
City of Gosnells Art Award
Publications
2003 Simon Blond, “Salt, sand and waterholes”,
In the picture, The West Australian, 29 March
2001 Australian Painting 1788 - 2000; Oxford University Press;
p585;
“Intuition from the outside”: In the Big Picture, Neville
Weston, Big Weekend, 17 November
2000 Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art, Oxford University
Press & ANU
Kaltja Now, indigenous Arts Australia, Wakefield Press & Tandanya
Aboriginal Cultural Institute
1999 David Bromfield, Utopian visions The West Australian,
Big Weekend 23.10.
1998 “Jila Painted Waters of the Great Sandy Desert”,
Video Documentary, SBS Television
1995 Anna King Murdoch, “Late Starter Tells Desert
story in Bright Acrylics”, The
Age, 3rd Dec.
1994 Rod O’Brien, “Playful air to dottiness of bushscapes”, The West Australian, 19 May
1993 Anna King Murdoch, “Late starter tells desert story
in bright acrylics”, The Age, 3 December
Awards
1994 City of Gosnells Art Award, Aboriginal Art Prize
Collections
Art Gallery of WA, Sir James and Lady Cruthers,
Artbank, Hyphema collection, Royal Perth Hospital, Gabrielle Pizzi,
Ian & Sue Bernadt, Wesfarmers, National Gallery of Australia,
Levy Kaplan Collection- Seattle USA, Thomas Vroom Collection- Amsterdam,
private collections in Germany, England and Australia
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