Gerry Mungatopi is a traditional owner for Muluwurrapi, the country on which Milikapiti sits. He grew up in the community here with his father’s family but is also tied to a strong family on Bathurst Island through his mother’s side. He attended the local Milikapiti Primary School and completed his education at Kormilda College in Darwin

Like many Tiwi’s, he is a talented AFL player and has played for three local teams, Pumorelli, Tuyu and Muluwurri Magpies. As he gets older, he has started to focus less on playing football and more on creating art, celebrating his strong Tiwi culture and taking on governance roles at the Tiwi Land Council and on the Executive Committee of Jilamara Arts and Crafts. Gerry started working at Jilamara in late 2012 under the suggestion of his friend Lance Tungutalum – a long time member of the organisation. His grandfather Brendan Mungatopi was also a senior carver and as a young child in 80s and 90s Gerry remembers watching him make ironwood tutini poles.

Gerry comes from a long line of great artists on his mother’s side. Alan and Cyril Kerinauia who work at Tiwi Design on Bathurst Island and Raelene and Dymphna Kerinauia who have worked at Jilamara Arts on Melville Island for many years. Gerry mainly works in the carving workshop and has recently been part of some major national outcomes including the major exhibition Paralika Tutini Jilamara at AGSA for Tarnanthi in Adelaide (2019) and a public commission for the Milikapiti Store (2020).

Gerry enjoys carving these ironwood tutini poles and Tokwampini (Tiwi birds). He is establishing himself as a talented emerging carver at Jilamara – working closely with his mentor Patrick Freddy Puruntatameri and has shown in group exhibitions and commercial galleries around Australia and overseas.

Courtesy of Jilamara Arts and Crafts

After studying at Kormilda College in Darwin, Jason returned to Milikapiti and has lived and worked here ever since. He has worked in various jobs including in construction with a local builder and at the Regional Council mechanic workshop. Jason is good at working with his hands and now spends most days in the carving workshop at Jilamara Arts and Crafts.

He always like the idea of joining Jilamara, but never found the time around other work commitments. His grandmother Freda Warlapinni was a famous painter at Jilamara in the 1990s and he remembers watching her work here. After a career in driving road machinery his uncle Linus Warlapinni retired to become a painter at Jilamara and enjoyed great success as an older artist. Jason joined to follow his family’s great success at the art centre and enjoys carving birds and painting on canvas. He likes to idea of learning skills from the old people and keeping culture strong for his children.

Courtesy of Jilamara Arts and Crafts

Geraldine learns from the older people about Tiwi culture so that when she gets old she can pass it on to her grandchildren. Her motifs include traditional designs from the older and experienced artists, bush tucker and the native flora and fauna that inhabit the Tiwi Islands. To paint the “mother lines” Geraldine uses the traditional Kayimwagakimi comb technique used for body painting.

Pius Tipungwuti has a long history working as an artist at Jilamara Arts and Crafts. He remains a strong leader in governance being an early influence in the development of the art centre and has held the positions of President, Public Officer and Treasurer. His tutini (pukumani poles) can be found around the world from the Muluwurri Museum in Milikapiti, to the Darwin Airport, Singapore’s Botanical Gardens and as far away as Amsterdam where he travelled to complete a commission in the late 2000s. Pius managed Milikapiti’s men’s centre for some years, combining his creative skills with directional and motivational work for young men. He has also held the chair of the Milikapiti Regional Council on multiple occasions. His skills as a carver are highly regarded and his work is included in major collections around the world.

Pius continues a prominent family legacy of significant Tiwi artists. His mother Mary Magdalene Tipungwuti was a senior Jilamara artist, and his younger brother John Martin Tipungwuti is also a respected carver. John Martin and Pius are the nephews of the highly acclaimed Tiwi artist Declan Apuatimi, their father Dermot Tipungwuti’s half-brother.

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Kaye is a senior Tiwi culture woman. She is well versed in the old ways, traditional stories and speaks the ‘hard’ Tiwi language. She started painting at Jilamara Arts and Craft later in life after she retired from work. Prior to this she taught at the local primary school and worked at the Milikapiti Library. She loves teaching culture to the local primary school children who come to Jilamara for culture classes in the Museum. She has a wealth of local knowledge about Tiwi culture and the history of the Tiwi people and ancestors.

She uses the Kayimwagakimi (carved ironwood comb) and natural ochres for Melville Island to paint. Her jilamara (body paint design) and pwoja (body) styles are very layered and reminiscent of some of the old Tiwi artists and the body painting styles hey used to prepare for ceremony and yoi (dance).

Kaye paints on canvas, linen and paper, but is particularly drawn to painting on stringybark sourced from around Milikapiti. Although joining the art centre later in life, Kaye is gaining recognition as a leading female artist at Jilamara. Her first solo exhibition in 2020 at Aboriginal and Pacific was met with public acclaim, and she followed it up with another successful show in 2022. She has been a finalist in the Telstra NATSIA Awards twice and was a significant part of the major TIWI Exhibition at NGV Australia in 2020/21. Kaye also has a very successful design as part of Jilamara’s screen printed textiles line, which was part of the North Tiwi Strong Women’s Collection.

Courtesy of Jilamara Arts and Crafts

“John Wilson is my dad in Tiwi way [uncle]. I remember watching him painting, carving, mixing colours with his partner, but she has passed away.” – Mickey Wilson

Mickey Wilson is also known around Milikapiti as Forgarty. He is a recent addition to Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association. For over 10 years Mickey worked at the local farm, a community driven initiative managed by Tiwi Enterprises. Since joining the art centre in 2022, he has thrived as a painter with his own unique Tiwi mark making style. As a new member, his skills at carving and painting in Tiwi ochres is testament to the fact that for his whole life he has been surrounded by art making through culture and ceremony. As he says:

“At times, through my life I have made paintings at home and Tutini [ironwood Pukumani poles] for ceremony.”

Mickey is also part of the team of staff at Jilamara Arts that collect and prepare stringybark and ironwood for painting. Throughout 2022, he had the chance to participate in a group bark exhibition at the University of Melbourne as well as the Darwin Festival and Aboriginal Art Fair. He is excited for more opportunities and outcomes in 2023.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2022     YOYI (dance), Fiona and Sidney Myer Gallery, University of Melbourne

Ngininguwula Kurrujipuni (Our Tiwi Ochre Colours), Double Tree Hilton, Darwin

Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, Darwin Convention Centre

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Courtesy of Jilamara Arts

“My father taught me everything about carving, how to use carving tools, what wood to use and what colours. He was the late great Murrunungumirri (Paddy Freddy)” – Patrick Freddy Puruntatameri

Patrick began painting with Jilamara Arts and Craft when he left school at 17. He has been part of the organisation as it has developed into a prominent arts organisation since the late 1980s. He said he always wanted to be an artist, learning from his father Paddy Freddy Puruntatameri, a highly respected and renowned carver.

Paddy taught young Patrick “to do this and to do that”. He drew for him, taught him how to use the chisel and mallet properly as well as showing him the right wood to use for carving and to make spears. Paddy showed him the right colours for painting, how to make red and where to get it.

Patrick is a loving father of five children and a well-respected senior artist at Jilamara – he is well known for skillfull carvings of his totem the jurrukukuni (owl). He manages the Jilmara carving workshop, which is named after his father and is a mentor for younger artists learning traditional Tiwi carving and jilamara (body paint design)

His works are held in many major collections Australia wide including the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra), the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne) and the Queensland Art Gallery (Brisbane). He has had great success throughout his long career including major group and solo exhibitions. Most recently Patrick has been commissioned to make tutini poles for Paralika tutini Jilamara (2019) – a major group exhibition of Tiwi tutini at the Art Gallery of South Australia and NIRIN: the 22^nd Biennale of Sydney at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (2020).

Courtesy of Jilamara Arts and Crafts

Jimmy Mungatopi works at Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association in Milikapiti.  

He has been coming to the art centre all of his life. The old people said, “join in – we want to pass this place on to you young people”. When he was told this he thought, “I’m not going anywhere and I had to think how do I want to move on?”  

So, he decided he would come to Jilamara to build a life for himself and his kids.  

Jimmy is an alumnus of the ANKAAA's 2014 Arts Worker Extension Program. He is recognised for his traditional dancing and singing.  He has exhibited in the ‘Emerging Artists’ exhibition at Outstation in 2014 and in several of the Tiwi exhibitions held at Double Tree Hilton during the Darwin Festival.

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Wally Brooks is a young carver and artist at Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association. He is mentored by senior carver Patrick Freddy Puruntatameri and spends most of his days working in the open air Murrunungumirri carving workshop. He uses locally sourced ironwood and earth pigments to make tokwampini (birds), figurative works which represent the Tiwi creation story, tutuni poles and ceremonial spears.

After finishing High School at Tiwi College here on Melville Island, Wally lived for a while at Pirlangimpi (Garden Point), but then moved to Milikapiti with his partner to bring up their young family. He started working at Jilamara in 2017.

Wally is also a staff member at the organization, collecting ironwood and ochres for the studios and he also heads up the bark collecting team during wet season – harvesting and seasoning purrungupari (flat barks) and tunga (bark baskets) for artists to paint throughout the year. Wally is also a keen dancer contributes to many of the funded culture projects here at the art centre, often helping senior artists teach culture and share skills with the local primary and high school students through the Culture Class program. He has sat on the Executive Committee of the organisation and is a strong voice for the art centre’s young membership.

In 2019, he was a significant part of Paralika Tutini Jilamara, a major install of Tiwi tutini poles at the Art Gallery of South Australia for Tarnanthi. He travelled to Adelaide for the opening and performed Tiwi Yoyi (dance) for the projects public program. He is also part of the collaborative artist-led film project YOYI (dance) which premiered internationally at Gropius Bau in Berlin and was curated into The National 4: Australian Art Now at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney.

Courtesy of Jilamara Arts & Crafts