Table Of ContentOnce upon a time
in Papunya
ViVien Johnson has an extensive body of work relating to the
artists of Papunya Tula and how the movement they started
in 1971 has influenced the rest of the Western Desert and
eventually all of Aboriginal Australia. Her pioneering books,
including the monumental Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists, and
her work on Indigenous cultural and intellectual property
rights have had wide social impact. Her last appointment was
as a Global Professor at the University of New South Wales.
Vivien was also founding Editor-in-Chief of the Dictionary of
Australian Artists Online.
Once upon a time
in Papunya
Vivien Johnson
A New South book
Published by
University of New South Wales Press Ltd
University of New South Wales
Sydney NSW 2052
AUSTRALIA
www.unswpress.com.au
Text © Vivien Johnson 2010
All paintings courtesy of the Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd
First published 2010
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose
of private study; research; criticism or review; as permitted under the
Copyright Act; no part may be reproduced by any process without
written permission. Inquiries should be addressed to the publisher.
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Author: Johnson, Vivien
Title: Once upon a time in Papunya/by Vivien Johnson.
ISBN: 978 174223 007 8 (pbk.)
Subjects: Bardon, Geoff, 1940–2003
Papunya Tula Artists Pty. Ltd.
Art, Aboriginal Australian.
Aboriginal Australians – Northern
Territory – Papunya – Painting.
Painting, Aboriginal Australian – Northern Territory – Papunya.
Painting, Aboriginal Australian – Northern Territory – Western
Desert.
Art, Australian – 20th century.
Art and mythology.
Dewey Number: 709.0110994291
Cover design Jenny Grigg
Text design Jenny Grigg, Avril Makula and Di Quick
Printer Ligare
This book is printed on paper using fibre supplied from plantation
or sustainably managed forests.
All reasonable efforts were taken to obtain permission to use copyright
material reproduced in this book, but in some cases copyright holders
could not be traced. The author welcomes information in this regard.
Contents
Acknowledgments vi
Introduction 1
1 The School of Kaapa 11
2 ‘So Beautiful’ 44
3 The Pintupi Factor 79
4 The Problem of Secrecy 100
5 The Midas Touch 139
6 The Object of Protection 187
7 Give Those Men a Real Voice 223
8 The Icons Precedent 266
Epilogue 295
Notes 297
Bibliography 325
Index 330
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to my friends and colleagues John Kean, Jeremy
Long and Fred Myers for reading some of the draft chapters
and for their supportive and helpful comments; Sotheby’s
Australia for their generous support in supplying images; all
the artists of Papunya Tula, past and present; Alison Ander-
son; Linda Anderson; Dorn Bardon; Geoffrey Bardon; Philip
Batty; Roger Benjamin; Diana Calder; Wally Caruana; Fran-
cesca Cavazzini; Jack Cooke; John Corker; Diane de Vere;
Bob Edwards; Peter Fannin; Fred Friis; Christine Godden;
Iris Harvey; Ian Howard; Mr and Mrs WL Jackson; Michael
Jensen; Tim Johnson; Richard Kelton; Kate Khan; RG (Dick)
Kimber; Tim Klingender; Graeme Marshall; Vincent Megaw;
Michael Jagamara Nelson; Laurie Owens; Stephen Oxen-
bury; Zena Pearlstone; Hetti Perkins; Charlotte Phillipus
Napurrula; Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra; Cara Pinchbeck;
Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri; Arnold Probin; Richard Probin;
Sarita Quinlivan; Alison Reid; Murphy Roberts Tjupurrula;
Roxana Roman; Nicolas Rothwell; Judith Ryan; Luke Scho-
les; Glenn Schwinghammer; Carmel and Rod Sears; Billy
Stockman Tjapaltjarri; Paul Sweeney; Charlie Tjapangati;
Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula; Grenville Turner; Penny Tweedie;
Anthony Wallis; Ellen Waugh; Andy Weislogel; Bobby West
Tjupurrula; Margie West; Simon Wheeler and The Ithaca Jour-
nal; John and Barbara Wilkerson; Daphne Williams; Centre
for Cross-Cultural Research, Australian National University;
College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales; the
staff of Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd; Anna Lee my physio-
therapist; and Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern
Territory; Araluen Art Centre; Wollongong City Gallery; Art
Gallery of New South Wales; National Gallery of Victoria;
vi Once upon a time in Papunya
Queensland Art Gallery; National Museum of Australia;
Art Gallery of South Australia; Australian Museum; and the
National Gallery of Australia.
Every effort has been made to ensure the early Papunya
boards reproduced in the book are all ‘unrestricted’ images
and thus suitable for reproduction and distribution in Austra-
lia or anywhere else. I am deeply grateful to the senior cultural
authorities from Papunya, Kintore and Kiwirrkura, who
inspected the images of early Papunya boards reproduced in
this book and cleared them for possible publication.
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction
Search for ‘Papunya, Northern Territory’ on Google Earth
and you will see a huge circle, pierced on the right-hand side
by the dirt road from Alice Springs 260 kilometres away to
the south-east and on the left by another heading west 300
kilometres to Kintore, just inside the border with West-
ern Australia. Inside this circle is the huddle of buildings
comprising the remote Aboriginal community of Papunya.
Only the Phillipus compound sits outside the circle, off to the
north-west in the direction of Kalipinypa and other sites in
the country of its patriarch, Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra,
all but last of the founders of the famous Papunya Tula Artists
company which started here almost forty years ago.
If you look more closely, you can see four giant U-shaped
tracks coming off the circle to the north, south, east and west.
They’re hard to see because nothing has ever been built
along them. After the torrential summer rains of 2009–10 in
Central Australia, some of the heaviest since the incredible
downpour of 1971–72, they have almost disappeared under
a blanket of invasive buffel grass, at least from the air. On
foot, though, they are still easy to find and follow. Every
morning when I’m in Papunya, I take the one to the south,
entering near the football oval, passing through a stand of
mulga trees and emerging not far from the wide, sealed road
to the airstrip, one of the most tangible achievements of the
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