Dickie Minyintiri facts for kids

Dickie Minyintiri (born around 1915) is an Aboriginal Australian artist. He comes from Pukatja, in South Australia. He started painting in 2005, when he was about 90 years old. In 2011, he won a big award called the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award. This made him a very successful artist. People say he is the oldest artist in Pukatja. He is also the community's most important lawman. This means he is a keeper of Tjukurpa, which is sacred knowledge.

Life Story of Dickie Minyintiri

Dickie Minyintiri was born into a Pitjantjatjara family. This was around the year 1915. He was born in the Australian bush at Pilpirinyi, Western Australia. This place is close to the border with South Australia. As a child, he lived a nomadic life in the desert with his family. This means they moved from place to place.

Their traditional lands were spread over a large area. This was along the border between the states. They often traveled far east for special ceremonies. For several years, they camped around the Musgrave Ranges. This was near the place that would later become Ernabella. This was before non-Indigenous people arrived in the area.

First Contact with Newcomers

Minyintiri and his family first met non-Indigenous people in the 1920s. He was still a child at this time. They saw a group of men on camels. The men were trying to pull a truck out of a muddy spot.

In 1937, the mission settlement of Ernabella was set up. Minyintiri and his family were there for this. They settled at the mission with other Aboriginal families. Minyintiri has lived at Ernabella ever since. For most of his life, he worked as a shepherd. He also worked as a shearer, cutting wool from sheep.

Becoming a Healer and Artist

Later in his life, he became a respected ngangkaṟi. This is a traditional healer. He is now one of the most important elders in his community. Before he started painting, Minyintiri made traditional wooden tools. He mostly made spears.

Minyintiri began painting at Ernabella Arts in late 2005. He would paint at the art centre for a few hours every day. His wife, who has now passed away, would wait outside with their dogs. She kept them for company. At first, Minyintiri painted on paper. Now, he paints on canvas. His artworks have been shown in many group exhibitions. These have been held since 2006 in most major Australian cities. The South Australian Museum was one of the first places to show his work. They did this in a 2007 exhibition.

Understanding Dickie Minyintiri's Artwork

Most of Dickie Minyintiri's paintings use synthetic polymer paint on canvases. His very first paintings were done on paper. His artworks are almost always multi-layered. This means he paints several layers on top of each other. They have strong motifs and symbols. These represent important places or figures. Each layer shows a different memory or story. Because he is very old, Minyintiri only paints six to eight artworks each year. Nearly all of them are large canvases.

Stories in His Paintings

His paintings show sacred stories from his Dreaming. Dreaming is a special kind of spirituality. He paints songlines. These are the journeys taken by the ancestral beings of his Dreaming country. These beings include animals like the kanyaḻa (euro), malu (red kangaroo), wiilu (stone-curlew), waru (wallaby) and kaḻaya (emu).

His art often also shows his younger life in the desert. This was before he settled permanently at Ernabella. The religious parts of his works are always hidden. This is done for cultural reasons.

Where to See His Art

Examples of Minyintiri's work are kept in major art galleries. These include the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of South Australia, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. You can also see his art at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art and the National Gallery of Australia.

Winning the NATSIAA Award

In 2010, Minyintiri's painting Malukutjina ("Red Kangaroo Tracks") was chosen as a finalist. This was for the 27th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA). Another Pitjantjatjara artist, Jimmy Donegan, won that year.

Minyintiri won the 28th NATSIAA in August 2011. He won for his painting Kanyalakutjina ("Euro Tracks"). His artwork was chosen from over 300 entries. These had been narrowed down to 61 finalists. Minyintiri was about 96 years old at the time. It was the second year in a row that an artist from the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands had won this award.

About the Winning Painting

Kanyalakutjina is a multi-layered painting. It uses synthetic paint on a large canvas. The background has pale yellows and oranges. It is covered with many thick, ivory-coloured lines. You can see flashes of blue, black, and pink peeking through these lines. The judges praised Minyintiri for his clever use of colour. His work was compared to the early works of Emily Kngwarreye.

The painting shows a sacred men's ceremonial site near Pilpirinyi. The lines in the painting show the tracks of ancestral spirits. These spirits are kangaroos, dogs, and emus. They lead to important waterholes. Men also went to these waterholes for their ceremonies. Each layer and line in the painting is a memory of a journey Minyintiri has made. So, the painting shows the artist's many years of traveling his country. It also expresses his deep connection to the land.