Uta Uta Tjangala

My Country with Sandhills

1980

This is Yumari. These tali (sandhills) are on the south side. Malu (red kangaroo) at Yumari traveling west. Malu go there, a lot of malu there today and wallaby in those hills. The roundels on left of the picture might be Ngurrapalangu and Yumari on the other side. My father was dancing at Yumari, and he was showing the men. They went camping there with the old men. They were dancing overnight, singing the songs and all. They really knew them, palya (good).

MORRIS JACKSON TJAMPITJINPA

Language Group: Pintupi
Dates: 1926-1990

Uta Uta Tjangala was born in Dovers Hills, far west of Papunya. In the late 1950s, he led his family to Ikuntji (Haasts Bluff) where they made their first contact with white Australians. He later moved to the nearby government settlement of Papunya where, in 1971, he became one of the founding members of the Western Desert painting movement. Uta Uta was an important agitator for the return to homelands and was instrumental in establishing the Pintupi outstation at Yayayi in 1973, which would eventually result in the establishment of permanent settlements at Walungurru (Kintore) and Kiwirrkurra. His 1981 painting, Yumari, has become one of the most highly regarded artworks of the Papunya Tula art movement and helped gain international interest in Australian Aboriginal art. In 1985, Uta Uta was awarded the National Aboriginal Art Award.

UTA UTA TJANGALA, My Country with Sandhills, 1980

Synthetic polymer paint on canvas board.
26 × 23 3/4 in. (66 × 60 cm)
Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection.
Gift of John W. and Maria T. Kluge, 2008.
2008.0003.005.

Uta Uta Tjangala with his family at Walungurru, 1983.

Photo by Fred Myers.

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