Minga Yuwankui / Ancient Body Markings
Alfonso (Hardy) Puautjimi Jnr
Gordon Pupangamirri
Marie Yvonne Tipuamantumirri
Opening Saturday 4 July at 3pm
Exhibition runs 4 July to 15 August 2026
Proudly presented by Ngaruwanajirri Inc at Wurrumiyanga, Tiwi Islands
‘Minga are the initiation scars from the old times. Jilamara are the designs we paint on our body and face for ceremony like funerals, kulama, yoyi [dance].’ — Gordon Pupangamirri
Minga yuwankui are the Tiwi words used to describe the traditional body scarification practices undertaken during initiation ceremonies. Since colonisation, these designs have evolved from permanent scarification to non-permanent ochre body painting and the significant Tiwi design tradition known as jilamara. Today, these designs continue to be painted on our bodies and faces for important ceremonies including funerals, kulama (an ancient and deeply spiritual initiation ceremony), and yoyi (dance). The designs have been passed down through generations, from the minga to the jilamara seen in our contemporary art practices. They continue to find expression through painting, carving, printmaking, and ochre body painting.
For this exhibition, we began with tunga (bark baskets) and bark paintings (mintawunga jilamara), using these as the foundation for a series of lino block designs. The lino blocks were then printed onto fabric, from which each artist designed and created a set of garments to be worn alongside their tunga. The continuity of ancient Tiwi jilamara remains strong today. While techniques and technologies change, jilamara and Tiwi culture retain their power, relevance, and meaning within the contemporary world. Ngaruwanajirri has a long history of lino block printing on paper and batik on silk. This project extends that lineage, connecting ancestral knowledge and cultural practices with new forms of artistic expression.
(L to R): Artists Alfonso (Hardy) Puautjimi Jnr, Gordon Pupangamirri and Marie Yvonne Tipuamantumirri. Image courtesy: Ngaruwanajirri Art Centre, Bathurst Island.
Alfonso (Hardy) Puautjimi Jnr painting. Image courtesy: Ngaruwanajirri Art Centre, Bathurst Island.
Gordon Pupangamirri painting. Image courtesy: Ngaruwanajirri Art Centre, Bathurst Island.
Gordon Pupangamirri in his hand printed shirt with his tunga. Image courtesy: Ngaruwanajirri Art Centre, Bathurst Island.
Photo: (L to R) Artists Gordon Pupangamirri, Alfonso (Hardy) Puautjimi Jnr and Marie Yvonne Tipuamantumirri. Courtesy: Ngaruwanajirri Art Centre Bathurst Island.
Artists
Alfonso (Hardy) Puautjimi Jnr
Born 1969. Skin Group Sun. Dance Dingo.
Alfonso Puautjimi has worked with Ngaruwanajirri artists for two decades and frequently draws inspiration from the dynamic daily life of this small Indigenous Art Centre. His ‘art centre’ subjects include still life groups such as tutini (pukumani poles), groups of small carvings or bold jilamara patterns. Other works feature the local landscape with cars, airplanes, and bicycles in motion. In his paintings he often outlines subjects in black drawn over broad areas of colour, then finishes with another layer of colour to create texture and lustre.
Alfonso has exhibited extensively since 2002 including solo exhibitions in Sydney at Aboriginal and Pacific Art gallery. In 2024, Alfonso was selected as a finalist in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award at MAGNT. His work is held in public and private collections including the Art Gallery of South Australia and AGNSW, Newcastle University Art Collection and the Lam Collection, University of San Antonio, USA.
Gordon Pupangamirri
Born 1963. Skin Group Takaringuwi (Mullet). Dance Tartawarli (Shark).
Gordon has developed the Mirriparinga (Mangrove) design, inspired by the mangroves that thrive along waterways throughout the Tiwi Islands. Mangroves provide important food sources during Kumunupunari (the dry season), including yuwuli (mangrove worm), jokwarringa (mud mussel), and piranga (longbum), all of which remain significant to Tiwi life and culture.
Gordon is a prominent leader, artist, musician and curator and the senior cultural advisor at Ngaruwanajirri. He is a past executive member of ANKA the association for Aboriginal artists across the Northern Territory and Kimberley. He studied for the Batchelor of Visual Arts at Charles Darwin University in 1994 and a Certificate in Indigenous leadership in 2011. He has represented Tiwi art at numerous festivals and art fairs. Gordon has painted many murals on community buildings related to childcare and health and carves and paints as well as playing guitar. In 2022, Gordon, Barry Kantilla, David Tipuamantumirri and Graham Tipungwuti’s group of carvings, First Death on the Tiwi Islands, was exhibited in the Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of NSW.
Marie Yvonne Tipuamantumirri
Born 1984. Skin Group Stone. Dance. Shark.
Marie Yvonne’s jilamara comes from her dreaming at Pajuwapura (Rocky Point), her father’s country and a beautiful and spiritual place on Bathurst Island. Her dreaming is called Ampiji (Rainbow Serpent) and comes from a large rock in the water that resembles the head of a giant serpent. The rainbow jilamara is painted on her face in ochre during festivals and ceremonies.
Marie Yvonne has worked at Ngaruwanajirri for over twenty years. She paints with ochres and watercolour and is known as a distinctive colourist. She has shown in group shows at Aboriginal Bush Traders and Laundry Galleries in Darwin. This is her first focus exhibition.
Publications on Tiwi Art (date order)
Charles Mountford, The Tiwi: their art, myth and ceremony, 1956.
James Bennett, ‘Narrative and decoration in Tiwi painting: Tiwi representations of the Purukuparli story’, Art Bulletin of Victoria no. 33, 1993. At http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/narrative-and-decoration-in-tiwi-painting-tiwi-representations-of-the-purukuparli-story/
Kathy Barnes, Kiripapurajuwi: Skills of our Hands, 1999. A comprehensive overview of first decade of Jilamara and Munupi Arts Centres.
Being Tiwi, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2012. At https://www.mca.com.au/artists-works/exhibitions/being-tiwi/
Jennifer Isaacs, Tiwi: art, history, culture, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne University Publishing, 2012.
Tiwi Art and Artists, edited by Judith Ryan, 2022 published to coincide with the exhibition TIWI held at The Ian Potter Centre: National Gallery of Victoria, 2021.
Tiwi Textiles: Design, Making, Process, Diana Wood Conroy with Bede Tungutalum, 2022.
Tiwi Art Centres
The Tiwi are the original inhabitants of Melville and Bathurst Islands and were separated from mainland Aboriginal peoples and from murrintawi (white people) for most of their history. Evidence of Tiwiness is found in their language, customary ceremonies, material culture, kinship system and sexual politics. Most Tiwi speak to each other in their own language. Sometimes this is real or old Tiwi and often the language spoken today incorporates many Australian and some international expressions and words. There are several dictionaries and teaching guides on the Tiwi Language.
There are several major Tiwi-owned and operated art centres and two purpose specific art centres. On Bathurst Island at Wurrumiyanga the art centres are Tiwi Design, Bima Wear and Ngaruwanairri Inc. Tiwi Designs was established by Bede Tungutalum and Giovanni Tipungwuti in 1970. Bima Wear was set up in 1969 and is one of Australia’s longest-running Indigenous textile and fashion studios led by Tiwi women to support local employment and preserve cultural knowledge through design.
Ngaruwanajirri translates as ‘helping one another’. The studio is known historically as the Keeping Place and features a spectacular ceiling painted by past artists. The building was designed in the late 1970s by Sydney architect Peter Myers, as a concept evocative of the high curved ceiling of a traditional bark shelter. Opening in 1994 the art workshop has been operating continuously in its present location. Ngaruwanajirri is also in part a program for Tiwi people with disabilities. Artists at work with a variety of media and styles range from classical designs to everyday subjects.
On Melville Island, at Milikapiti, Jilamara Arts & Crafts Association began in 1985 as an adult education centre specialising in fabric design. In 1990 Munupi Arts & Crafts Association was formalised when the Yikiyikini Women’s Centre and Pirlangimpi Pottery were incorporated. Munupi is situated at Pirlangimpi (Garden Point).
Acknowledgements
Thanks to the artists for their support. Special thanks to Gordon Pupangamirri for the title concept and to Sarah Newell and Jane Polkinghorne for enabling his vision.
