Ngarralja Tommy May 1935-2022
Born a Wangkajunga/Walmajarri at Yarrnkurnja in the Great Sandy Desert, in northeastern Western Australia, Ngarallja Tommy May (1935 - 2022) was instrumental in establishing paradigms for Aboriginal economic and cultural survival through art-making in the 1970s and 80s. A renowned painter, carver and printmaker, his practice is marked by a deep sense of pride associated with his traditional nomadic life: he approached visual culture as a tool to educate, inspire and demonstrate his love of Country.
Known for his exuberant approach to colour and mark-making, and his experimental use of mixed-media, May painted the features of his abundant Country at Fitzroy Crossing in intimate detail, capturing the pulany jirtirl ngapa jila (living waterholes), tali (sandhills) jumu (soakwater) and the bush foods that flourish nearby.
May’s central role in the creation of the collaborative - and colossal - masterpiece of Desert Painting, the Ngurrara Canvas, affirms his integral position in the canon of contemporary Aboriginal art. One of the largest and most spectacular Aboriginal Western Desert paintings, it was painted by sixty senior traditional owners of the Great Sandy Desert as an emotionally and politically charged expression of their links to their Country, for presentation to the National Native Title Tribunal in 1997.
I was big when I left my country. I was already hunting by myself. I was with my young brother and my mother. My father had passed away by this time. I know these stories and these places in my country. We are not allowed to paint that story for other people's country. We will get killed or into trouble if we do this. We put that easy story, not a really hard story like law business. We can't paint that either. I first saw paintings in caves. I learned a lot from people, mostly my father and grandfather. I was living all around in my country, camping all around. Wurna juwal, always moving. When I paint I think about this. My work is now like my drawing for printmaking, straight onto the tin, sometimes wood, using a knife or pens. I work every day, and I've travelled a lot with the paintings. Singapore, Houston, Washington DC, like that.
May also served as a founding member of the Karrayili Adult Education Centre, where he learnt to read and write his own language and English. He is the former Deputy Chairman of Mangkaja Arts and former Chairman of Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Cultural Centre (KALACC). Ngarralja was also an executive for 21 years on the Association of Northern Kimberley and Arnhem Aboriginal Artists (ANKAAA) Board of Directors.
Two years before his death in 2022, May was awarded the top prize in the prestigious Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. His work is held in meany public and institutional collections around the world, including the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, and The National Museum of Australia, Canberra.
