Tiwi Designs: Aboriginal Art from Bathurst Island, Tiwi Islands
It started, as so many significant things do, in a small room. Underneath the Catholic Presbytery on Bathurst Island in 1968, two young Tiwi men, Bede Tungatalum and Giovanni Tipungwuti, worked with school art teacher Madeline Clear to produce woodblock prints. The medium was chosen for good reason: it had a natural connection to wood carving, a tradition already deeply embedded in Tiwi life. Within a year they had moved to silk screens. Within two, a set of six linen place mats had won the Industrial Design Council of Australia's Good Design Award, and Tiwi Designs had announced itself to the country.
That founding energy has proved durable. Today around 100 artists work across a complex that sits above Tingata (the beach) on Apsley Strait at Nguiu, on the southeastern corner of Bathurst Island, 80 kilometres north of Darwin. The facilities reflect the breadth of what Tiwi culture demands of its artists: carver's shelter, pottery studio, screen printing studio, painting studio, gallery and administrative centre. The work produced here ranges across ochre paintings on canvas and bark, ironwood carvings, screen-printed fabrics, ceramics, bronze and glass sculptures, pandanus weaving, and limited edition prints.
The aim of the corporation, stated when the partnership became an association in 1980, has not shifted: to promote, preserve and enrich Tiwi culture.
Tiwi Designs at a glance
- Established: 1968.
- Location: Nguiu, southeastern Bathurst Island, Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory. 80km north of Darwin. Population approximately 1,500. Airport with regular daily flights, weekly barge service, and community boat across Apsley Strait to Melville Island.
- People and Culture: Tiwi people of Bathurst and Melville Islands.
- Art Style and Media: Ochre paintings on canvas and bark, ironwood carvings, screen-printed fabrics, ceramics, bronze and glass sculptures, pandanus weaving, and limited edition prints.
- Founding Artists: Bede Tungatalum and Giovanni Tipungwuti, with art teacher Madeline Clear.
- Notable Achievement: Industrial Design Council of Australia Good Design Award, 1970.
- Artists: Approximately 100 artists.
