Dino Wilson – Warnarringa Ngirramini – a story about the sun – in association with Jilamara Arts

Dino Wilson: Warnarringa Ngirramini – a story about the sun

This painting is warnarringa – that is the sun in Tiwi. In Tiwi the red ochre is yellow that we burn on the fire – it is the colour of the sun. Murtankala is our creation story – that old lady came up when it was all dark and she made light with yikwani (fire) and it became the sun. – Dino Wilson[1]

Dino Wilson would often refer to the story of Murtankala creating the sun, when talking about his paintings. It is the story of an old blind lady bringing life to the Tiwi Islands in the form of sunlight and three children that she carried in a tunga (bark basket) on her back. After shaping the islands with her body as she crawled through the sand and forming the elements of a liveable environment, she returned to the dark underground leaving her children to inhabit the earth. As Jilamara artist Michelle Woody Minnapinni explains: “That’s when she shone the light from the fire and lifted it into the sky to get the yamparriparri [evil spirits] going and to create light for her children to see and hunt and go gathering for food.”[2] Later, the story of her son Purukuparli and the death of her grandson Jinani tells of the coming of mortality to the Tiwi people and the first Pukumani (mourning) ceremony. These are the two definitive moments in life illustrated by creation stories and played out through the lives of countless generations of one of the world’s oldest living cultures. Tragically, the sun has set on Dino Wilson’s bright career and life as a contemporary Tiwi artist, but like the legacy of a great story his work lives on through the remarkable ochre paintings that he created. Warnarringa Ngirramini – a story about the sun will be his final commercial gallery exhibition. In the spirit of Tiwi Pukumani often held at least a year after a person’s funeral, the show is a celebration of an artist whose generous contribution to life endures through their work.

Every artists’ life and career has its own ngirramini (story). Some can be longer than others and slower burning, some mature and gain recognition later in a person’s life and some are brief and meteoric. Like the artwork he made, Dino Wilson’s career as an artist has its own unique narrative. The story of a young Tiwi man from Mantiwupyi Country who moved to the community of Milikapiti to live with tribe mate – AFL alumni Austin Wonaeamirri and his young family.

“Milikapiti is on Melville Island, I live here now but before I lived in Wurrimianga and Garden Point the other two communities on the Tiwi Islands. I like it here because it is quiet and we can go hunting everyday and I can work at Jilamara Arts – it was the first time I got a job as an artist here in Milikapiti.”[3]

Encouraged by senior artists and community members to join Jilamara art centre, Wilson quickly established himself as a gifted young artist of the organisation. He featured as one of Art Collector’s Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair feature artists in 2019. Within a year he held his inaugural solo exhibition at Outstation Gallery, followed by exhibitions at Vivien Anderson Gallery in Melbourne and Michael Reid Gallery in Berlin Germany. In 2021, he was selected for the Telstra NATSIA Awards finalist exhibition as an emerging artist for the career defining painting Ngiya Murrakupupuni (My Country). Then later that year a striking work of the same title was the recipient of the Award of Excellence in the National Emerging Art Prize in Sydney.

While much of Wilson’s career success coincided with pandemic restrictions and he rarely had the opportunity to attend exhibitions, his work travelled far and wide. In the year that Wilson was shortlisted for the NATSIA Awards, major works started to find their way into significant national collections. These include the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and Art Bank, while visitors to Wardle Architecture studio in Melbourne are greeted by one of his magnificent depictions of the Tiwi sun. As short as Wilson’s life was, his story lives on through the bold, gestural approach he had to making Tiwi designs using hand ground earth pigments from Country.

The preparation of ochre colours is a central part of ceremonial culture on the Tiwi Islands. As senior artist and cultural leader Pedro Wonaeamirri explains the gifting of a rock of ochre to in-laws actually marks the first phase of the Pukumani ceremony, a commissioning gesture for ceremonial preparations to commence:

“When a person passes away…they start off with a little ceremony. All of the in-laws come [and] bring tomahawks, white ochre, a lighter. A tomahawk to go and cut the timber; the white ochre to paint the timber; and the lighter to burn the grass, to keep the spirit away while you are working on the poles.”[4]

The preparation of colours for painting is a key part of this process and by extension a central part of art making at the centre. Although the term jilamara is often translated as ‘Tiwi body paint design’, it can actually refer more broadly to the action of painting itself. It is common to hear the simple question around the art studios: “Nginja jilamara ningani?” which translates to: “Are you painting today?” As indigenous art curator Margie West identifies jilamara; “literally means colour or paint, though the term is now applied generally to describe all designs.”[5] These include ochre designs on the face and body for ceremony, ironwood tutini poles, tunga, bark, canvas, linen, paper and a whole range of different materials.

“My Country is Pickataramoor. We get the yellow ochre there and we burn it on the fire to make it red. I feel happy working with ochres, it makes me feel good because they have come from my Country. The old people they do it from long time ago, before they pass away they pass it over for us – the new generation.”[6]

Wilson came from a long line of Tiwi artists from Milikapiti writing their story through visual language and designs in ochres. Speaking of the great Jilamara artist Kitty Kantilla Kutuwulumi, previous art centre Coordinator James Bennett observed that:

“A key to understanding Tiwi painting is the customary practice of participants in Pukumani ceremonies inventing spontaneous songs and dances to illustrate ‘the story’ of the grave poles, thus enabling their audience to ‘read’ the meanings of the designs.”[7]

Referring to the elaborate ochre body paint designs and body ornamentation associated with the ceremony, Bennett further identifies that: “The pukumani [mourning] ceremony is closely connected to the notion of disguise…ceremonial camouflage ensures that imagination and invention are key elements in each artist’s creative agenda.”[8] Kutuwulumi has long been appreciated as an artist who celebrated a great knowledge of the old ways through artistic innovation, therefore undoing expectations around indigenous ceremonial and art practices being fixed and unchanging. Wilson’s work is also a great celebration of living culture. It is new and innovative while simultaneously drawing on long-standing cultural processes and narratives. Reflecting on Wilson’s work, Pedro Wonaeamirri recently said: “My uncle was the new generation and you can see his yikara [hand] in his painting. Every painter, all different, everyone has their own style and interpretation of the art from parlingarri (old times) to today.”[9]

A single life may seem definitive and finite as the rising and setting of the sun, but for someone to find their calling as an artist is a form of enduring immortality. Murtankala is a story that tells of creation of new life through sunlight and fire. Wilson wove parts of this story into his artwork using locally sourced, ground and burnt pigments from the earth to paint. The colours of the land, the sun and fire applied to recall the old designs and creation stories of the Tiwi people. He overcame many challenges as a remote First Nations person, but he worked hard and garnered international acclaim for what he created. When preparing information for his first exhibition catalogue in 2019 he stated as a matter of fact, “I am born and bred on the Tiwi Islands and it is important for me to be living in Milikapiti and making art about my culture.”[10] Wilson’s art career was very important to him. It may have been short and he may not be living in Milikapiti and making art about his culture anymore, but his ngirramini (story) lives on through his paintings. A year after his passing Warnarringa Ngirramini – a story about the sun is an exhibition that showcases the great contribution to life and art that endures through his work. Much like the Pukumani ceremony it is a farewell, but not in every way and not forever. As Pedro Wonaeamirri has often said: “Pukumani is more a celebration, more a goodbye ceremony, like, ‘Goodbye, see you next time in your Country.’[11]

Mana Nimpangi. Ngawa akurlupuwunyi kapi yinja Murrakupupuni

Will Heathcote, Jilamara Arts, 2024

[1] In conversation with the artist in the Jilamara Studios, 2022

[2] Michelle Woody Minnapinni, “Murtankala” in Ryan, Judith (ed.) TIWI, NGV: Melbourne, 2020, p. 265-6.

[3] In conversation with the artist in the Jilamara Studios, 2021

[4] Pedro Wonaeamirri, “Pukumani; letting the world know” in Tony Tuckson, Mimmocchi, D. (ed.), Art Gallery New South Wales: Sydney, 2018, p. 195.

[5]Margie West, “It Belongs to No One Else: e Dynamic Art of the Tiwi.” In One Sun One Moon: Aboriginal Art in Australia, edited by Hetti Perkins and Margie K.C. West. Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales. 2007, p. 125

[6] In conversation with the artist in the Jilamara studios, 2020

[7] James Bennett, “Kitty Kantilla’s Art and the ‘Old Designs’” in Kitty Kantilla, Ryan, J (ed.), National Gallery of Victoria: Melbourne, 2007, p. 91.

[8] James Bennett, “Kitty Kantilla’s Art and the ‘Old Designs’” in Kitty Kantilla, Ryan, J (ed.), National Gallery of Victoria: Melbourne, 2007, p. 90.

[9] In conversation with the artist in the Jilamara studios, 2024

[10] In conversation with the artist in the Jilamara studios, 2020

[11] Pedro Wonaeamirri, “Pukumani; letting the world know” in Tony Tuckson, Mimmocchi, D. (ed.), Art Gallery New South Wales: Sydney, 2018, p. 195.