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This website was developed for the exhibition Irriṯitja Kuwarri Tjungu | Past & Present Together: Fifty Years of Papunya Tula Artists that was on view at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia from 2021-23 and the Embassy of Australia in Washington, DC in 2024. It was made possible by our creative partnership with Papunya Tula Artists and the generous support of UVA Arts Council. Site design by Urban Fugitive for V21 Artspace.
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George Ward Tjungurrayi

Kaakurutintjinya (Lake Macdonald)
2003

While walking near Kaakurutintjinya (Lake Macdonald), Kuninka (the Native Quoll ancestor) came upon a piece of emu fat and the tracks of the Tingarri men who had dropped it. They had been hunting in his country, cooking the emu at Tikartika east of the lake, and they hadn’t given any to Kuninka, the boss of the country. He became angry because they had sneaked and not shared with him. He told his two sons to get ready, and he set off west to follow the Tingarri men’s tracks. He passed the Possum people at the claypans of Yiitjurunya, where the possums were protecting a man who had eloped with a wrong wifefrom Warlpiri country. Terrifying them with his power, he headed west and then south, to Yawalyurru, where the Tingarri men were underground. He opened their hiding place with his throwing stick, made them come out and sent them on their way—under his authority, as punyunyu (novices)—to Kaakurutintjinya. After they stopped around Kulkurtanya, where Kuninka told them to wait, the Tingarri men were marched up to Kaakurutintjinya where they were killed with hail and lightning by Kuninka’s two sons. Exhaustedby this exercise of their powers, the sons died and turned into snakes at the site.

Language Group: Pintupi
Date: Born 1945

George Ward Tjungurrayi was born near the site of Lararra east of Tjukurla, West Australia, and south east of Kiwirrkurra. George arrived at Papunya as a young boy, where he worked as a fencer and butcher in the community kitchen. George’s father was also the father of Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi and Willy Tjungurrayi, who were among Papunya Tula’s leading artists. George frequently observed the two at work and began to paint after the death of Yala Yala in1998. George’s paintings often feature the big lake site of Kaakurutintjinya (Lake Macdonald), which a large group of Tingari men travelled through on their way east. In 2004, George was awarded the prestigious Wynne Prize for Landscape Painting at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. After painting for private dealers in Alice Springs as well as for Papunya Tula Artists, George has returned to live with family in Warakurna. Both of his children, Grace Ward Napaltjarri and Adrian Ward Tjapaltjarri now occasionally paint for Papunya Tula Artists.

Are you related to this artist? Are you a scholar of artwork from the Papunya Tula movement? Please contact us at kluge-ruhe@virginia.edu if you would like to add something to this page or see something that is missing or incorrect.
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