Back to Artists

Ganangoo Butcher Cherel

Date of birth: c.1920
Skin: Jangkarti

Butcher Cherel Janangoo was born around 1920 at Jalnaganjoowa. This is near the original homestead on one of the longest established cattle stations in the Kimberley, Fossil Downs. He now lives in town at Fitzroy Crossing.

His mother was Kija and his father, Gooniyandi. He speaks both languages as well as some Walmajarri and Bunuba. Both of his parents worked on the station in and around the homestead and he recalls being taken out bush for walkabout and at law time. With the two of them working on the station, it follows that Butcher also spent most of his working life on Fossil. As a stockman he worked cattle, droving from Fitzroy Crossing to Derby and Broome. This time was hard as he remembers, “real hard”.

Butcher is a key elder of the Gooniyandi language group and has been instrumental in the retention of law ceremony at Muludja Community. He sees Aboriginal law and language as fundamentally important and feels uneasy that young people today do not have this tradition to refer to as they have not been educated as he was.

Butcher’s works provide glimpses of his cultural and physical environment. As he stated, “with my eyes, my heart and with my brain I am thinking. When I go to sleep nighttime, I might talk to myself `ah, I might do (paint) that one tomorrow’, not dreaming; I think about what to do next.”

Solo Exhibitions

1992 Butcher Cherel Janangoo Gooniyandi Kija Birukmarri Gallery, Fremantle
1993 Parntapi Bilgna Artplace Gallery, Perth (with Peter Skipper)
1996 Durack Gallery, Broome
1997 Joonany garra mi yoodila I put it good way Artplace, Perth
1998 Gamba Malami Dagoola Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
1999 Imanara : Big Country Festival of Perth Exhibition Artplace Gallery, Perth
1999 Janangoo Butcher Cherel Aboriginal & Pacific Arts Gallery, Sydney
2000 Imanara Country Artplace, Perth
2001 Janangoo-Imanara-Gooniyandi Artplace, Perth Group Exhibitions
1993-97 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award
(Selected to hang) Museum and Gallery of Northern Territory, Darwin
1993 Images of Power; Aboriginal Art from the Kimberley National Gallery of Victoria
1994 Ngajakura Ngurrara Minyarti,this is my country. Festival of Perth Exhibition / Artplace Gallery, Perth
1995 Fremantle Print Award Fremantle Art Centre
1995 Mangkaja Old Mangkaja New Prints Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
1995 Prints from the APW Collection Survey show of recent works from the APW archive Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
1996 MangkajAPW Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide
1996, 97 Heritage Commission Art Award Old Parliament House Canberra
1998 Mangkaja Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London
1999 Story Boards Ceramic tiles from the Kimberley Fremantle Art Centre
2000 Proof Positive, Limited edition prints by Leading Australian Artists Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
2000 Imanara Series / Kerry Stokes Collection Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
2001 Butcher Cherel, Tommy May, John Nargoodah, Mervyn Street Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
2001 Mangkaja Arts, Ten Years Aniversary Tandanya, Adelaide

Publications:

Janangoo Butcher Cherel Birukmarri Gallery, Fremantle / Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency 1993

Ngarragi Muay Ngindaji, Ngajukura Ngurrara Minyarti, Ngindaji Ngarragi Riwi, Ngayukunu Ngurra Ngaa: this is my country Artplace Gallery, Perth / Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency 1994

Mangkaja : Old Mangkaja New Prints Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne / Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency 1995

Imanara : Big Country Festival of Perth Exhibition Artplace Gallery, Perth / Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency 1999

Story Boards Ceramic tiles from the Kimberley Fremantle Art Centre / Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency 1999

Awards

1993 Finalist RAKA Award, Melbourne University

Collections

National Gallery of Victoria
Art Gallery of Western Australia
University of Western Australia
Curtin University, Perth
Aboriginal Affairs Department, Perth
Holmes A Court Collection
Kerry Stokes Collection
Artbank, Sydney