Churchill Cann (Yoonany) (*ca. 1947)

Churchill Cann (Yoonany) was born in ca.1947 at what is now called Texas Downs station, northeast of Warmun township in the East Kimberley area. He grew up on the station and spent most of his life working as a stockman. He belongs to the Gija and Miriwoong language groups and has deep knowledge of the land and its oral histories. He is a follower, like many people in Warmun, of both his people's religious beliefs and also Christianity.

He is an important elder in the community, with rich knowledge of Indigenous laws, and has important parts in ceremonial dances as well as being one of the last traditional healers amongst the Gija.

Churchill Cann (Yoonany) is the head of a wide-spread family, many of whom are artists and who paint exclusively in ochre and other natural pigments on canvas: e.g. his sisters Nancy Nodea and Katie Cox as well as his daughter Charlene Carrington.

Group Exhibitions (selected)

2012 Geteilte Erde. Malerei australischer Aborigines und Keramik von Lotte Reimers – Shared Ground. Indigenous Australian painting and the ceramic art of Lotte Reimers, Theodor-Zink-Museum, Kaiserslautern, Germany
2011
Gemaltes Land, Kunstverein “Talstrasse”, Halle, Germany
2010 Churchill Cann and Beerbee Mungnari, Seva Frangos Art, Perth, Australia
2009 Warnarran Gelengen: Old Times New Times, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney, Australia
2009 The Youngest One, Chapman Gallery, Canberra, Australia
2008 East of East Kimberley: Warmun in Asia, Red Dot Gallery, Singapore
2007 Greetings from Turkey Creek, Mary Place Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2007 Warda-Wurrarem (All kinds of Stars), Raft Artspace, Darwin, Australia
2006 Gentlemen of Warmun, Seva Frangos Art, Sydney, Australia
2005 Waterhole Country, Short Street Gallery, Broome, Australia
2004 Die inneren und die äußeren Dinge. Stadtgalerie Bamberg Villa Dessauer, Bamberg, Germany (in cooperation with Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer)
2003 Big Country. Works from the Flinders University Art Museum Collection, Flinders University City Gallery, Adelaide, Australia
2003 Ngarrgoorroon, Yiyili and Yarrunga - Four Artists from Warmun, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney, Australia
2002-2003 Garmerrun: All Our Country, Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide, Australia
2002 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, Australia
2002 Die Kraft und das Licht. Kunst aus Australien, Neuer Kunstverein Aschaffenburg, Germany (in cooperation with Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer)
2001 Ochres, Short Street Gallery, Broome, Australia
2001 Das Verborgene im Sichtbaren (The Unseen in Scene), Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg, Germany (in cooperation with Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer)
2000 Kunst der Aborigines, Leverkusen, Germany (in cooperation with Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer)
2000 Hogarth Galleries, Sydney, Australia
2000 The Collection. Aboriginal Fine Art & Weavings, Gallerie Australis, Adelaide, Australia
1999 Short Street Gallery, Broome, Australia
1999 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, Australia
1994 The 2nd National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibition, Old Parliament House, Canberra, Australia

Collections

Artbank, Sydney, Australia

Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia

Harvey Wagner-Sammlung, USA

Kelton Foundation, Los Angeles, USA

Kerry Stokes-Sammlung, Perth, Australia

Murdoch University, Perth, Australia

University of Wollongong, Australia

Literature

Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer, Kulturabteilung Bayer, Leverkusen, and Bayer Australia, Sydney (eds.): Das Verborgene im Sichtbaren. The Unseen in Scene, Speyer 2000, exh. cat., ISBN 3980707202

Flinders University City Gallery (ed.): Big Country. Works from the Flinders University Art Museum collection, Adelaide 2003, exh. cat., ISBN 072581103X

Isaacs, Jennifer: Spirit Country. Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art, Hardie Grant Books, Melbourne, und Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1999, exh. cat. ISBN 1864980494

Kleinert, S. and Neale, M. (eds.): The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture, Oxford Univ. Press, Melbourne 2000, ISBN 0195506599

Meeuwsen, Franca: Aboriginal Kunst, de verhalen vertellen, Zwolle 2000, ISBN 9040095078