Wallankarri Tjakamarra Mick b. c.1910

Also known as Old Mick Wallankarri Tjakamarra, Mick Tjagamara, Mick Jagamara, Mick Djagamara, Old Mick, Mick Tjakamarra, Tjakamarra Mick
  • Artist (Painter)
One of the founders and most important artists painting for Papunya Tula over its first two decades because of his ritual authority and encyclopedic knowledge of stories and designs.
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Born c.1910 at Watikipinrri, west of Central Mt Wedge (Kerrinyarra), for which Mick was the senior custodian. Mick had worked as a stockman at Glen Helen and Narwietooma stations in his younger days. His knowledge and authority in the ritual sphere made him one of the most important of Papunya Tula’s artists to his fellow painters. Mick shared with Tom Onion the custodianship of the Honey Ant design of the original mural painted on the Papunya school wall. He was a prolific painter, stopping only when his eyesight and health failed him in the early 1990s. By this time he had passed his skills and his love of painting on to younger artists including Maxie Tjampitjinpa and Don Tjungarrayi . Mick’s country stretched across the Papunya, Mt Wedge, Mt Liebig region covering the Sugar Ant (Warumpi), Water, Yam (Yarla), Snake (Yarripirri) and Woman Dreamings which the artist usually painted. His usual place of residence was Papunya, though towards the end of his long life he spent time in Alice Springs for medical treatment. His work was exhibited in the Asia Society’s Dreamings show which toured North America in 1988-9. He was the first Western Desert artist to be purchased by the National Gallery of Australia.

Writers:
Johnson, Vivien Note: Primary biographer
Date written:
1994
Last updated:
2011

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