Nyuju Stumpy Brown (1 July 1924 – 13 September 2011) was a Wangkatjungka

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

painter and law woman, a prominent figure in the law and culture of

Fitzroy Crossing Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to: People As a given name *Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name: **FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855) ** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

Early life

Nyuju Stumpy Brown was born 1 July 1924 on the

Canning Stock Route The Canning Stock Route is a track that runs from Halls Creek in the Kimberley region of Western Australia to Wiluna in the mid-west region. With a total distance of around 1,850 km (1,150 mi) it is the longest historic stock route ...

in Ngapawarlu, Western Australia. She grew up in the

Great Sandy Desert The Great Sandy Desert is an interim Australian bioregion,IBRA Version 6.1
data

. She was also known as Kumanjayi Brown. When her parents died while she was young, Brown was then raised by her drover uncle, Jamali Wally Darlington. Her brother,

Rover Thomas Rover Thomas Joolama (1926 – 11 April 1998), known as Rover Thomas, was a Wangkajunga and Kukatja Aboriginal Australian artist. Early life Rover Thomas was born in 1926 near Gunawaggii, at Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route, in the Great ...

, was an artist. Darlington took Brown, by camel, to the Catholic Mission in Balgo where she learned English before they moved to Fitzroy Crossing. She said in an interview that she had never seen a white person until she was 15 years old. Early on, Brown, as a domestic worker at Emmanuel Station in Fitzroy Crossing. was not paid a wage, but received meat and tobacco in a barter arrangement.

Career

Brown was to become a "law woman", a prominent figure in the law and culture of the Fitzroy Crossing community. She ran the

corroboree A corroboree is a generic word for a meeting of Australian Aboriginal peoples. It may be a sacred ceremony, a festive celebration, or of a warlike character. A word coined by the first British settlers in the Sydney area from a word in the l ...

(Nyanpi) ceremonies for the town's children. Brown was also in charge of Women's Law from Wangkatjungka to Balgo. Her paintings were held in collections at the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

, the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...

, the

Berndt Museum of Anthropology The Berndt Museum of Anthropology is an anthropological museum in Perth, Western Australia, founded in by Ronald Berndt and Catherine Berndt. The Berndt Museum is currently located with the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery on the western side of th ...

Northern Territory University Charles Darwin University (CDU) is an Australian public university with a main campus in Darwin and eight satellite campuses in some metropolitan and regional areas. It was established in 2003 after the merger of Northern Territory University, ...

, and the Lepley Collection. She participated in numerous group exhibitions.

Artistry

Brown had a spontaneous painting style that incorporated strong colours. Several of her works included a circle as a symbol for various subjects including geographical places, waterholes, and bush foods. While describing her work ''Pura'' (2003), art curator Wally Caruana stated, "Her canvases have a jewel-like quality about them that are one part

Venetian glass Venetian glass () is glassware made in Venice, typically on the island of Murano near the city. Traditionally it is made with a soda–lime "metal" and is typically elaborately decorated, with various "hot" glass-forming techniques, as well as ...

, two parts

Hundertwasser Friedrich Stowasser (15 December 1928 – 19 February 2000), better known by his pseudonym Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser (), was an Austrian visual artist and architect who also worked in the field of environmental protection ...

, and five parts

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with a twist of Lower Manhattan graffiti." Caruana added that:

"It came as no surprise to learn she rownhad worked with other senior artists on two huge canvases that were used in a
native title Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, ...
action in 1996. "In the hearings, claimants stand on their section of the `map' and describe their relationship to their land and the relationship to the land of neighbouring groups. In each painting, the only concession to Western mapping is the depiction of the
Canning Stock Route The Canning Stock Route is a track that runs from Halls Creek in the Kimberley region of Western Australia to Wiluna in the mid-west region. With a total distance of around 1,850 km (1,150 mi) it is the longest historic stock route ...
as a point of reference for those comparing the painting to a European map of the region."

Personal life

Brown spoke Wangkatjunga. She married Fitzroy Mission church leader, Pukulu. They had three daughters. In 1992, she later married Hitler Pamba, lawman and fellow Wangkatjunga artist and lived in the Mindi Rardi section of Fitzroy.

Death

After a stroke in 2007, Brown retired from painting. She died in September 2011.

Awards

Brown won a Kimberley Art Prize in 2005.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Nyuju Stumpy 1924 births 2011 deaths 20th-century Australian painters 21st-century Australian painters Artists from Western Australia Australian Aboriginal artists Australian contemporary painters Australian women painters Australian domestic workers Indigenous Australians from Western Australia People from the Kimberley (Western Australia) 20th-century Australian women artists 21st-century Australian women artists