Born c.1927 at Marnpi south west of Mt Rennie. According to Tindale’s records, the family group was camped near Putarti Spring, south west of Mt Liebig when encountered in 1932. When interviewed, Mick remembered as a little boy walking east to Haasts Bluff with his family to collect rations from the missionaries. For the next decade, the family stayed around the Haasts Bluff /Hermannsburg area. Mick was initiated at Areyonga. He subsequently worked as a stockman on various stations, including Tempe Downs and Areyonga. In 1971 he was serving on the Papunya Council and with fellow councilor Johnny Warangkula soon made his interest in painting known to art teacher Geoffrey Bardon. During those early years, Mick travelled to Sydney with Bardon for the making of the film Mick and the Moon about the artist and his work. Mick was one of a few Pintupi who stayed on in Papunya for some years after the 1981 mass exodus to establish the Pintupi township of Kintore on their homelands. Painting prolifically in this period of the early ’80s, he travelled to Sydney with Nosepeg Tjupurrula and Tutuma Tjapangati in 1981 for an independent exhibition mounted at Syd’s, Darlinghurst, Sydney in support of an Aboriginal controlled health service at Papunya. Later Mick joined his countrymen and women at Kintore, and set up an outstation at Nyunmanu to the south-east of the settlement. Later he lived at Njutulnya outstation with his second wife Elizabeth and their two young children. A senior man, Mick’s paintings covered many Dreamings, principally Kangaroo, Dingo, Water, and Bandicoot. His work increasingly explored new directions and remained fresh and exciting after decades of continuous output. In 1989 he travelled to Melbourne for an exhibition of Papunya Tula Artists at the National Gallery of Victoria. His painting Bandicoot Dreaming won the 1991 National Aboriginal Art Award. In 1991 he had his first solo exhibition at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi Melbourne.

Writers:

Johnson, Vivien Note: primary biographer

Date written:

1994

Last updated:

2011