Literature in our Collection
(A-L)

Griffith Artworks und Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Association (Hg.): Darby Jampijinpa Ross: Make it good for the people, 2008, Ausst. Kat., SBN 9781921291425

Table of Contents        ¦         Cover Text        ¦         Book Review

Table of Contents

Foreword -1-

SP Wright: Make it good for the people -2-

Liam Campbell: Darby Jampijinpa Ross -15-

Paintings -18-

Biography -59-

Cover Text

Darby Jampijinpa Ross (1905-2005) had a constant drive to communicate the certain ways he saw the world from his camp at Yuendumu, a remote community in the Tanami Desert. Always with the conviction that Warlpiri ways should be considered alongside non-indigenous ways, in order to survive and prosper, he did so with a sense of irony in the knowledge that younger generations were no longer learning what he was taught. He was concerned that knowledge systems he embodied were being left behind, in the wake of television, Toyotas and takeaway. Regardless of medium, he did not waver from his message, and it can be found in recordings of the 1950s, documentary films of the 1960s and 1970s, and in more recent television programs like ‘Bush Mechanics’ and ‘The Bush Tucker Man’. Although he never considered himself an artist - there is no Warlpiri word for ‘art’ - another important strategy he adopted was the painting of kurawarri (designs associated with country) for Jukurrpa (Warlpiri intellectual property). This extended to his role as a founding member of Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Association in the mid 1980s, only the second art centre following on from Papunya in 1970-71. For many decades previously, he had facilitated ground, sand and body painting during ceremonial business, and when new materials became available Darby was quick to exploit them for his purposes. His foray into painting with the full spectrum of acrylic paint colours began when he was around the age of 80, and can now be regarded as an innovative and significant contribution to Australian art and culture. Darby Ross never had a solo exhibiton of his painting across two decades, and this project presents the first survey of his practice.