Kiripapurajuwi

“Clever with our Hands”

Kiripapurajuwi, celebrating seven remarkable women from Ngaruwanajirri, Wurrumiyanga, Bathurst Island. Works on paper and wood carvings.

FEATURING WORKS BY

Raphaelina Babui, Alexandrina Kantilla, Lorna Kantilla, Lillian Kernaua, Delilah, Freddy Puruntatameri, Jane Margaret Tipuamantumiiri, Marie Yvonne Tipuamantumiiri

Opening Event

12pm–2pm, Saturday 12th July
With a live performance by the artists

Exhibition open Friday to Monday
Closing Saturday 2nd August

OPENING HOURS

Friday and Monday, 11am–4pm
Saturday and Sunday, 10am–3pm

This exhibition showcases seven female artists from Ngaruwanajirri, Wurrumiyanga, Bathurst Island. Whether they have been coming for years or have just started, they all work in the heritage listed Keeping Place. With its gorgeous curved painted ceiling, the heritage-listed Keeping Place welcomes, shelters, and inspires everyone that visits, especially the artists who call it home.

For Kiripapurajuwi the artists have responded to the building’s ceiling and the ancient traditions of Tiwi culture when producing their work. These aren’t static traditions. The works are alive, shimmering with the embedded meanings of jilamara [Tiwi designs]. Each artist responds uniquely to Tiwi tradition with their own dance and skin and totem within the works. The artists share with us their jilamara, showing us they are kiripapurajuwi.

The majority of works in this exhibition use locally sourced ochres collected on Bathurst Island, and prepared on site, with the exception of Lillian Kerinaiua whose love of bright colours sees her now using fibre-tipped pens. The carvings are made from locally sourced Kartukini [Ironwood (Erythrophleum chlorostachys)] and painted with the same ochres.

Alexandrina Kantilla works both at Ngaruwanajirri and Munupi Arts and Crafts in Pirlangimpi. This year Alexandrina has been using different pwaja [painting comb] to create a new series of works. In these painting the energised path of the pwaja pulls your eyes across the surface. Light and dark are at play as Alexandrina alters the ground surface colour. The busy pwaja is everywhere holding ground.

Lorna Kantilla is represented here with older works alongside recent works of her regular motif – the jokwarringa [mud mussel]. Lorna’s work in the show spans 20 years. These gestural paintings give us rare insights into the progression of Lorna’s mark-making over that time.

Lillian Kerinaua is the oldest member of the group and recently switched to using fibre-tipped pens which allows her to explore the bright colours she so loves to work with. Lillian is a strong Tiwi woman who fills the page with ceremony motifs, japijapunga (f), [buffalo] jarrikarlaninga (f) [Turtle], partitapartita [horse], and tutini [pole] to name a few.

Raphaelina Babui started with Ngaruwanajirri in 2025 and is the youngest, tallest, and newest member. She is the art centre’s first female carver, and has been delighting everyone with her quirky carvings made from Kartukini [Ironwood] while she develops her jilamara [Tiwi design]. These quirky carving have come about through selecting kartukini from the carvers’ throw-out pile, giving the wood new life.

Delilah Freddy Puruntatameri has spent most of her life surrounded by Tiwi culture and jilamara [Tiwi design] in and around Milikapiti as her father was the late renowned artist Paddy Freddy Puruntatameri. She recently moved to Wurrumiyanga, where she thickly and thoughtfully applies ochres to paper. Her recent works interpret the traditional designs used in Tiwi body paintings.

Jane Margaret Tipuamantumirri is one of Ngaruwanajirri’s most well-known artists, having painted in watercolours and ochres on paper and canvas for nearly 30 years. Her themes range from Kurlama [three day ceremony] to and the animals that are yinkiti [food]. The two ochre paintings selected for the show are muputi jilamara [fish design] and show Jane’s signature liveliness.

Marie Yvonne Tipuamantumiiri Is well known for her beautiful hand-drawn and hand dyed, silk batiks. Over the past 12 months year Marie has focussed on painting in ochres on paper and canvas. For this exhibition Marie explores her dreaming ampiji jimamara [rainbow serpent design], and yuwuli [mangrove worm] yinkiti [traditional food] in these considered and intensely worked paintings.