Love story of a man and the moon

Wartuma Tjungurrayi, also known as Charlie, was central to the group of men who began painting at Papunya, Northern Territory, in 1971 and was a founding member of the Aboriginal company Papunya Tula Artists. Tjungurrayi painted consistently from 1971 to 1999 and is often remembered for stating, ’If I don’t paint this story some whitefella might come and steal my Country’.

This comment was no doubt informed by Tjungurrayi’s experiences of living in Papunya: a government settlement designed with the intention of centralising and assimilating Aboriginal people from the surrounding regions, where compliance to European norms was expected. Within this environment, Tjungurrayi and his peers used painting as a means of maintaining culture, remembering tjukurrpa and allaying their longing for home.