Charlie Ward Tjakamarra

Two Goanna Ancestral Men

2002

In this work, the artist has depicted the site of Yungumarru, to the west of Kiwirrkurra. In the Tjukurrpa, two ancestral Goannas camped at this site. While the artist did not elaborate further, it is possible that the work relates to the Wati Kutjara Tjukurrpa that is a common theme of artists from the Western Desert including Tjumpo Tjapanagka and Tiger Palpatja. This songline follows two brothers with special powers as they travel across the Western Desert. One brother is Mulya Maru (Black Nosed Monitor lizard) and the other is Tingka (Sand Goanna). Charlie Ward's painting is influenced by the concentric forms carved onto ceremonial objects, but in dividing the canvas into two, the artist refers directly to the two campsites of the ancestral Lizard brothers.

Language Groups: Pintupi, Ngaanyatjarra, and Pitjantjatjara
Dates: 1932–2005

Charlie Ward Tjakamarra was born in the bush at Yungatjunku south of Kiwirrkurra to Wartatjanu Tjangala and Turrula Tjangala. First encountering white Australians while walking through the country, Charlie spotted a helicopter which later landed and took his sick brother Tjuwi "Helicopter" Tjungurrayi to a nearby mission hospital. Charlie arrived in Papunya in 1964, where he lived and painted a few early boards. Charlie flourished as an artist upon finally settling in Kiwirrkurra in the mid-1980s, painting his Tjukurrpa stories for Papunya Tula Artists from April 1985. Married to Mananya Napaltjarri and later to the artist Yukultji Napangati, Charlie had five children, many of whom also painted as Papunya Tula Artists.

Biographical information sourced from Vivien Johnson, Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists. Alice Springs: IAD Press, 2008.

CHARLIE WARD TJAKAMARRA, Two Goanna Ancestral Men, 2002

Synthetic polymer paint on canvas. 35 5/8 × 47 7/8 in. (90.5 × 121.6 cm). Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, The Richard Klingler and Jane Slatter, 2019. 2019.0018.002.

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