Gija Country, the Bungle Bungles (Purnululu).
Warmun Art Centre, Warmun (Turkey Creek), East Kimberley, Western Australia
In 1975, Rover Thomas had a dream. A spirit showed him the journey of a recently deceased woman across the East Kimberley landscape, and the songs and images he received became the Krill Krill ceremony. His uncle Paddy Jaminji painted the first boards carried in the ceremony. By 1981 Thomas was painting as a solo artist, and by the late 1980s his work had attracted national gallery exhibitions. In 1990, Thomas and Trevor Nickolls became the first Aboriginal artists to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale. The Krill Krill ceremony and its associated imagery established the Warmun School of painting, a style now recognised as one of the most distinctive in Australian art: broad colour-field areas of natural ochre depicting country simultaneously as map, spiritual landscape and historical record. Warmun Art Centre was formally established in 1998, when Thomas, Queenie McKenzie, Madigan Thomas, Hector Jandany, Jack Britten and other senior Gija artists recognised the need for a community-owned centre to support, maintain and promote Gija art, language and culture.
The community of Warmun, also known as Turkey Creek, sits on the Great Northern Highway in the East Kimberley, approximately 200km south of Kununurra and 160km north of Halls Creek. The Gija people are the traditional owners of this country. Around 60 established and emerging artists work at the centre today, among them Mabel Juli, Shirley Purdie, Rusty Peters, Patrick Mung Mung, Gordon Barney and Lena Nyadbi. The characteristic Warmun palette of red, mustard, black, white and grey comes from natural ochres harvested by hand from Gija country, broken down and ground to pigment, then mixed with eucalyptus gum as a binder. In March 2011, a catastrophic flood destroyed much of Warmun including the art centre and its nationally significant community collection. The community evacuated, rebuilt on higher ground and resumed. The centre now also houses the Warramany Media Lab and an education partnership with the University of Melbourne that recognises Gija elders as cultural leaders and educators.
Warmun Art Centre at a glance
- Location: Warmun (Turkey Creek), Great Northern Highway, East Kimberley, Western Australia, approximately 200km south of Kununurra
- Language group: Gija (also Kitja)
- Established: 1998; owned and governed by Gija people, 100% of income returned to community
- Art forms: Ochre painting on canvas; natural earth pigments mixed with eucalyptus gum binder; printmaking
- Style: Broad colour-field areas depicting Gija country as topographical map and spiritual landscape; the Warmun School originated with Rover Thomas and the Krill Krill ceremony, 1975
- Founding artists: Rover Thomas, Queenie McKenzie, Madigan Thomas, Hector Jandany, Jack Britten, Paddy Jaminji, George Mung Mung
- Notable artists: Mabel Juli, Shirley Purdie, Lena Nyadbi, Rusty Peters, Patrick Mung Mung
- Collections: National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Museum of Australia
