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Wakartu
Cory Surprise
Skin: Nyapana
Language: Walmajarri
Country: Pirrmal
DOB: 1 / 7 / 29
Senior Walmajarri artist Wakartu Cory Surprise was born in the
Great Sandy Desert circa 1929. These are close to words:
Tapu that's my fathers' country... Kutal my mothers' country...
my parents died when I was a baby. I grew up at Wayampajarti... that's
my country now. I was born in the desert: I was born at Tapu. I don't
remember my mummy or daddy... they were finished up in the desert.
When I was crawling I went to Christmas Creek. My sister-in-law Trixie
took me. I was promised to one old man... he had two wives. We
had no clothes when we came in. We were frightened of the Station manager,
we ran away from that place. Two times we ran away to the desert. I
went to the desert with my husband we looked for Pijaju Peter Skipper
out there, then we all came back for ceremony.
My husband was working
contract. I followed my husband on his contracts... fencer
him. I worked as camp cook... big mobs I cooked for. We did fencing
at Quanbun Downs, Jubilee Station, Yiyily, Cherrabunn Station. I got
sick of that station... big one work... I worked so hard... I
ran away. I did cleaning, cooking, milking goats.
Me walk out from bush last time... young woman me... with
my two brothers. We were living at Wayampajarti and around that country
there. At Wayampajarti there is a jila (waterhole)... that's
the place for Kalpartu (an ancestral snake). When we lived out bush
we got to know law. We got to know where the water is and where our
country is... where to find food. You got to be careful not to
go to the wrong places... you might make the kalpurtu (spirit
snake) angry or them other ones like kukurr, murungkurr, parlangan.
You could make other people angry too. You need permission to go to
other people's country.
I worked at lots of places: Christmas Creek Station, Cherrabunn Station,
Quanbun Downs, Jubilee Downs Station, then I live mainly at one place,
Go Go Station (near Fitzroy Crossing) until I got old.
I come to Fitzroy Crossing in the 1950's. I got big mob of kids... some
of them finish up now.
I first started painting at Karrayili Adult Education Centre in the
early eighties. We told our stories through painting and learned to
speak to Kartiya (non aboriginal person). I also did painting at Bayulu
community near Fitzroy Crossing. That's how I told my story to
kartiya. We worked on paper then, not canvas, not board.
When I paint, I think about my country, and where I have been travelling
across that country. I paint from here (points to head-thinking about
country) and here (points to breasts, collarbone and shoulder blades-which
is a reference to body painting). I think about my people the old people
and what they told me, I think about jumangkarni (Dreamtime).
Nobody taught me how to paint, I put down my own ideas, I saw these
places for myself, I went there with the old people. I paint jilji
(sand hills), jumu (soak water), jila (spring), jiwari (rock hole),
pamarr (hills and rock country), I think about mangarri (vegetable
food) and kuyu (game) from my country and when I was there. When I
paint I am thinking about law from a long time ago, I am thinking about
the country, my country. When I first painted we didn't get money,
nothing. I like painting, its good, I get pamarr (word for rock, stone
money) for it, I can buy my food, tyres, fix my car, I give some money
to family and I keep some for me.
Exhibition History
Solo
2007 Wakartu
Cory Surprise at Silvershot Gallery Raft
Artspace in Melbourne
2006 Wakartu
Cory Surprise Raft
Artspace & Mangkaja Arts at Silvershot
gallery Melbourne
2006 Mangkaja
Arts Presents Wakartu Cory Surprise Raft
Artspace, Darwin, NT
2005 Cory
and Friends Red
Dot Gallery, Singapore
2004 Solo
Exhibition Boutwell
Draper Gallery, Sydney
Group
2008 25th
Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Award Museum
and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
2008 Mangkaja
Artists WA Randell
Lane Fine Art
2007 Women
Artists of Fitzroy Crossing Raft
Artspace Darwin
2006 Mona
Chugana & Cory Surprise Short
St Gallery, Broome
Depth & Divergence Cullity
Gallery, UWA. Perth
2005 Surprise
;Cory & Friends Red
Dot Gallery, Singapore
Too
much good work Raft
Artspace, Darwin NT
Mangkaja
Group Show Raft
Artspace, Darwin NT
Colourfields Gallery
Gondwana, Alice Springs
"Too
much good work" Raft
Artspace, Darwin
2004 This
is Still My Country: Artplace,
Perth 10
years on Perth International
Arts Festival
Ngurrara
Canvas Perth
Concert Hall, Perth International Arts
Festival
Wakartu
Cory Surprise & Widjee Henry Short
Street Gallery, Broome
Over
the Top Frementle
Art Centre, Perth
2003 Mangkaja
Women Raft
Artspace, Darwin
Jila,
Jumu, Jiwari & Wirrkuja University
of Western Australia
Fitzroy
Fusions Raft
Artspace, Darwin
2002 Group
Show Flinders
Lane Gallery, Melbourne
2001 Ngurrara
Canvas National
Gallery of Australia
Mangkaja
Arts Ten Years On Mangkaja’s 10
year Anniversary Show Tandanya,
Adelaide
1999 Ngurrara Japingka
Gallery, Fremantle
1998 Group
Show Rebecca
Hossack Gallery, London
1997 National
Aboriginal Art Award Selected
to hang
Group
Show Hogarth
Gallery, Sydney
1996 Group
Show Hogarth
Gallery, Sydney
1995 Group
Show Australian
Perspectives Gallery, Brisbane
Kimberley
Art Melbourne
National
Aboriginal Art Award Selected
to hang
1994 Ngajakura
Ngurrara Minyarti: This is My Country Festival
Of Perth Exhibition Artplace
Gallery, Perth
1993 Images
of Power National
Gallery of Victoria Mangkaja
Women Fremantle
Arts Centre, Perth
1992 Group
Show Hogarth
Gallery, Sydney
1991 Karrayili
Tandanya, Adelaide
Publications
2003 Martuwarra
and Jila, Jumu, Jiwari and Wirrkuja, Exhibition Catalogue Cullity
Gallery UWA Perth / Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency
The
Painted Desert The Fate of an Aboriginal Masterpiece , New Yorker
Magazine July 28, 2003
2000 Oxford
Companion to Aboriginal Art, Oxford University Press & ANU Karrayili
The
history of Karrayili Adult Education Centre , IATSIS Canberra
Painting
Up Big, The Ngurrara Canvas , Kaltja Now National Aboriginal
Cultural Institute -
Tandanya
1998 Jila
Painted Waters of the Great Sandy Desert, Video Documentary / SBS
Television
1996 Minyarti
Wangki Ngajukura Ngurrarajangka; This is the word from my country,
Exhibition Catalogue
1994 Ngajakura
Ngurrara Minyarti, This Is My Country, Exhibition Catalogue
1993 Mangkaja
Women Exhibition catalogue, Fremantle Art Centre
1991 Karrayili;
10 years on , Exhibition Catalogue Aboriginal
women's Exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery Of New South Wales
Collections
Art
Gallery of New South Wales
National
Gallery of Australia
National
Gallery of Victoria
Awards
1997 Work
on Paper Prize National Aboriginal Art Award
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