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| Born |
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c. 1947 |
| Location |
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Parwalla |
| Skin |
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Nungurrayi |
| Language |
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Pintubi |
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| Themes |
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| Purra |
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bush tomato |
| Kantilla |
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bush raisin |
| Minyali |
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seed |
| Rockholes |
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| Coolamons and digging sticks |
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| Story of granmother who killed
and ate a snake with her three children |
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| Tingari |
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| Nyumi currently lives at Kururrungku (Billiluna),
an outlying community from Balgo. Nyumi's mother belonged to the country
of Nynmi (Jupiter well) near Kiwirrkurra on the Pintupi side. Tragically
she died quite young from a dingo bite at the Kanari soak water close
to Jupiter Well. Her father was from Alyarra in the region of Natajarra.
Nyumi was living a nomadic existence with her family group on the Canning
Stock Route before walking into Old Mission with her father after her
mother had died. Here she was given clothes and taken to Billiluna and
trained as a house worker, cleaning the floors with rags, washing dishes
and raking the grounds. She subsequently traveled to many station houses
around the region working for the wives of the station owners. |
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| Nyumi married a man by the name of Palmer Gordon
who is now a senior law man of the Billiluna community. Both Nyumi and
Palmer teach culture to the children at the school ensuring the traditional
dances and songs are kept alive. Nyumi advises the nursing staff at the
health clinic about traditional bush medicines and she is also knowledgeable
about carving coolamons and digging sticks. |
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| Nyumi's paintings are mainly concerned with the country
of abundant bush food belonging to her family. In her maturity as a painter
she initially worked with a thick brush, covering the canvas in emanating
lines in muted tones. Her style has now developed to using a multitude
of dotting to build up fields of texture but retains her signature motifs
of small camps, coolimons and bush tucker trees and scrubs. Nyumi has
travelled to the Netherlands overseas and to Sydney, Perth, Darwin and
Alice Springs for exhibitions of her work. She is a vibrant and active
member in the community being a strong law and culture woman. |
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| Solo exhibtions |
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| 2001 |
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Parwalla, Raft
Artspace, Darwin |
| 2002 |
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Aboriginal and Pacific Art
Gallery, Sydney |
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| Collections |
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National Gallery of Victoria
Morven Estate
The Holmes a Court Collection
Artbank
Helen Read Collection
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
Harland Collection
The Laverty Collection
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| Bibliography |
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| 1994 |
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Johnson, V., 1994, The Dictionary
of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville NSW |
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