Harry Tjutjuna was born in the bush around 1930 at Walyjatjara, north of Pipalyatjara, remote South Australia, in the Anangu, Pitjantjatjara, Yankuntjatjarra Lands (APY). He and his family would have experienced enormous upheaval caused by the encroaching colonizers.
As a young boy his parents took him to the Ernabella Mission (est.1937) where he went to school. As a young man he moved around the APY Lands with his growing family before settling in Irruntju and Pipalyatjara then briefly Pukatja (Ernabella) and eventually to Kalka, closer to his traditional homelands in 2008.
It was 2005 when he was at Pukatja that I first saw Harry’s work. Hillary Furlong was the manager at Ernabella Arts at the time, and she had sent some small works on canvas board and paper by Tjutjuna for an upcoming group exhibition at RAFT. Harry had started painting a couple of years earlier in a makeshift studio at Ernabella Arts with his good friend Rami Sampson (c1936 – 2020). They were the first men painting at Ernabella Arts, their work with Tjukurrpa themes marked a shift away from the ‘Ernabella school’ or ‘Walka’ the prevalent design from the Ernabella art room at the time.
By the time of his first solo exhibition in Darwin in February 2007, it was obvious Harry’s confidence as a painter had grown significantly. His work was larger and bolder in his depiction of ‘Wati Wanka’ or Spider Man, ‘Ngangkari’ (Healer), Kungkaku Kuliningi (thinking about women) and his birthplace ‘Ngayuku Ngura’
Harry was a senior Lawman and Ngangkari (traditional healer). Ngangkari have special abilities and are responsible keeping balance by maintaining spiritual, emotional, social and physical health of a community. As a Ngangkari he had the ability to see spirits and use powers of ‘Wati Wanka’ to heal people. Tjukurrpa is a living real thing in his paintings … it is the power informing the work.
In 2008 Harry moved to Kalka and started painting for Ninuku Arts – this is when ‘Wati Wanka’ fully emerges as self-portrait as does ‘Wati Nyiru’, the three-legged male ancestral figure who chases the Seven Sisters (of the Kungkarralpalpa Tjukurrpa) and was driven mad by his unrequited lust.
Harry Tjutjuna’s paintings are a colourful celebration of Tjukurrpa, he had the cultural authority to be inventive, he created a visual language in paint to allude to a greater knowledge system intrinsically linked to country. The ‘Wati Wanka’ is responsible for creating the place where Harry was born and the source of power that he used to heal people as a Ngangkari.
“This is the big Spider Man, Wati paluru Ngangkari (a male traditional healer). He is a powerful and clever man. When rain comes he hides in his nest. At nighttime he changes colour. His name is Wati Wanka (Spider Man). Minyma wanka Tjuta (referring to a group of female spiders) are the women and all the children for this man, that’s the story I am the Spider Man.” Harry Tjutjuna
Harry Tjutjuna truly lived the Tjukurrpa, a Ngangkari, a respected elder, an artist with a huge personality who used his great knowledge to promote culture and heal people. It is hard to contemplate the enormity of change he experienced in his lifetime, from a traditional life on country to a sought-after artist. We get to celebrate his life and consider his creative genius with the paintings in this exhibition; they are imbued with something special and invite us into his Tjukurrpa.
Vale Harry Tjutjuna, Spider Man.
