Mawukura Jimmy Nerrimah

Language: Walmajarri
Skin: Jakarra
Country b. Wili in the Great Sandy Desert
Date of birth: 1924

Mawukura is a Walmajarri man. His country is around Wayampajarti a Jila (a permanent waterhole) in the north western area of the Great Sandy Desert. He was born near a waterhole called Wili, at a swamp called Miyitinynanguwu. He calls the names of places such as Tapu, Kurrjalpartu, Kayalijarti, Kurraly Kurraly, Walypa, Wayampajarti, Kumpujarti and Witikarrijarti as the main waterholes in his country. He grew up in the desert moving around these waterholes.

Mawukura was ‘nearly a man’ when his father brought him to the station country to escape a very large fire that was burning in his country around Tapu. He went through law at Lumpu Lumpu and then went back to the desert with his father in law where he lived for around five more years. The police came around there once he says but they did not pick him up, they gave him food. The police continued on but they were frightened by kalpurtu so they kept gong, straight back to town. The same police picked up Huey Bent and took him to Cherrabun Station not long after.

Mawukura eventually left the bush possibly in the early sixties. After coming in from the desert, Jimmy spent most of his time working on Nerrimah Station.

Exhibition History
Solo Shows
1999 Artplace, Perth
1994 Artplace, Perth
1994 Reflections of the Kimberley Gallery, Derby
1993 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2001 Artplace, Perth
2003 Cooee Gallery Sydney
2003 Artplace, Perth
2004 45 Downstairs Gallery, Melbourne
2005 Artplace, Perth
2005 Raft Artspace, Darwin

Group Shows
1999 Selected to hang in 16th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Darwin
1999 Aboriginal Kunst aus West Australien, Galerie Gaswerk, Germany
1999 Cooee Gallery Sydney with Peter Skipper
1994 ACAF-4, Fourth Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Melbourne
1994 Eight Western Australian Artists, The Blaxland Gallery, Sydney
Group Shows continued...
1994 City of Gosnells Art Award, Art Prize
2001 Ngurrara Canvas National Gallery of Australia
2001 Framed Gallery, Darwin
2001 Cooee Gallery Sydney with Peter Skipper

Publications
1994 Playful Air to Dottiness of Bushcapes Rod O’Brien
The West Australian, 19/5
1995 Late Starter Tells Desert Story in Bright Acrylics Anna King Murdoch
The Age 3/12
1998 Jila Painted Waters of the Great Sandy Desert
Video Documentary / SBS Television

2000 Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art
Oxford University Press & ANU

2000 Kaltja Now, Indigenous Arts Australia
Wakefield Press and Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Institute

Collections
Levy Kaplan Collection, Seattle USA
Thomas Vroom Collection, Amsterdam
National Gallery of Australia
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Gabrielle Pizzi
Ian & Sue Bernadt Collections
Wesfarmers Ltd