Peggy Rockman Napaljarri (also known as Peggy Yalurrngali Rockman Napaljarri) (born c. 1940) is a Warlpiri-speaking

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Born on what is now

Tanami Downs Tanami Downs (formerly Mongrel Downs) is an Indigenous Australian-owned cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia. Geography Tanami Downs station covers approximately of the Northern Territory, about north-west of Alice Sprin ...

pastoral station in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

, she learned English when working as a child with a white mining family; Peggy Rockman and her family were subsequently relocated by government authorities to

Lajamanu Lajamanu, formerly known as Hooker Creek Native Settlement or just Hooker Creek, is a small town of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located around from Katherine and approximately from Darwin. At the 2016 Australian census, Lajama ...

, a new community west of

Tennant Creek Tennant Creek ( wrm, Jurnkkurakurr) is town located in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is the seventh largest town in the Northern Territory, and is located on the Stuart Highway, just south of the intersection with the western termin ...

. Peggy Rockman is one of the

traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

of Tanami Downs. Since first learning painting through an adult education course in 1986, Peggy Rockman has painted particular ' dreamings', including Ngatijirri (budgerigar), Warna (snake), Laju and Ngarlu. Her work is in the collection of 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 ...

and the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...

. She has co-written ''Yimikirli: Warlpiri Dreamings and Histories'', a collection of texts in the Warlpiri language with English translations.

Life

Peggy Rockman was born around 1940. The ambiguity around the year of birth is in part because Indigenous Australians operate using a different conception of time, often estimating dates through comparisons with the occurrence of other events. Some sources give only "Lima" as a location; a more detailed account suggests she was born at Mungkururrpa, on

(formerly Mongrel Downs), a pastoral station in Australia's Northern Territory. Her name given at birth was Yalurrngali: Peggy Rockman was a name subsequently given to her by white administrators. ' Napaljarri' (in Warlpiri) or 'Napaltjarri' (in Western Desert dialects) is a

skin name Aboriginal Australian kinship comprises the systems of Aboriginal customary law governing social interaction relating to kinship in traditional Aboriginal cultures. It is an integral part of the culture of every Aboriginal group across Aust ...

, one of sixteen used to denote the subsections or subgroups in the

kinship system In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...

of central Australian Indigenous people. These names define kinship relationships that influence preferred marriage partners and may be associated with particular totems. Although they may be used as terms of address, they are not surnames in the sense used by Europeans. Thus 'Peggy Rockman' is the element of the artist's name that is specifically hers. Peggy Rockman had three older sisters, all of whom married Jampu Jakamarra, to whom Peggy herself would also later be married. Her family first settled alongside white Australians – a couple mining gold in the Tanami Desert – when she was aged between six and eight. While still a child herself, she worked caring for the mining family's children, during which time she became a proficient English speaker. After the mine was abandoned, Peggy Rockman's family returned to a nomadic existence in the region, before settling for a time at a pastoral station called Gordon Downs. Around 1952, the family was taken by the government's Native Affairs Branch to a new settlement called

, in the central desert west of

Tennant Creek, Northern Territory Tennant Creek ( wrm, Jurnkkurakurr) is town located in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is the seventh largest town in the Northern Territory, and is located on the Stuart Highway, just south of the intersection with the western termin ...

. There, Peggy Rockman was required to work full-time in the settlement's kitchens, being paid with meals, and occasionally also with rations. At the settlement, she had three children with Jampu Jakamarra. Peggy Rockman was one of six children of Milkila Jungarayi, and her siblings include artists

Biddy Rockman Napaljarri Biddy Rockman Napaljarri (born c. 1940) is a Walpiri-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. She has been painting since 1986, and her work is in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. Life Biddy Rockma ...

and

Mona Rockman Napaljarri Mona Rockman Napaljarri (born c. 1924) is a Warlpiri-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Her paintings and pottery are held in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. Life Mona Rockman was born around ...

. Peggy Rockman is one of the traditional owners recognised in the Tanami Downs land claim, under the

Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976 The ''Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976'' (ALRA) is Australian federal government legislation that provides the basis upon which Aboriginal Australian people in the Northern Territory can claim rights to land based on traditi ...

. Biographies published in 1994 and 2003 both indicated that she was living in the Lajamanu area, but by 2010 she had settled in

Katherine, Northern Territory Katherine is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is situated on the Katherine River, after which it is named, southeast of Darwin. It is the fourth largest settlement in the Territory and is known as the place where "The outbac ...

Art

Background

Contemporary Indigenous art of the western desert began when Indigenous men at

Papunya Papunya (Pintupi-Luritja: ''Warumpi'') is a small Indigenous Australian community roughly northwest of Alice Springs (Mparntwe) in the Northern Territory, Australia. It is known as an important centre for Contemporary Indigenous Australian art, ...

began painting in 1971, assisted by teacher

Geoffrey Bardon Geoffrey Robert Bardon AM (1940, Sydney – 6 May 2003) was an Australian school teacher who was instrumental in creating the Aboriginal art of the Western Desert movement. Bardon studied law for three years at the University of Sydney, b ...

. Their work, which used acrylic paints to create designs representing body painting and ground sculptures, rapidly spread across Indigenous communities of central Australia, particularly following the commencement of a government-sanctioned art program in central Australia in 1983. By the 1980s and 1990s, such work was being exhibited internationally. The first artists, including all of the founders of the

Papunya Tula Papunya Tula, registered as Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd, is an artist cooperative formed in 1972 in Papunya, Northern Territory, owned and operated by Aboriginal people from the Western Desert of Australia. The group is known for its innovative ...

artists' company, had been men, and there was resistance amongst the Pintupi men of central Australia to women painting. However, there was also a desire amongst many of the women to participate, and in the 1990s large numbers of them began to create paintings. In the western desert communities such as Kintore, Yuendumu, Balgo, and on the outstations, people were beginning to create art works expressly for exhibition and sale.

Career

Peggy Rockman was one of a number of artists who first learned painting through a course run in 1986 at Lajamanu by an adult education officer, John Quinn, associated with the local

Technical and Further Education Technical and further education or simply TAFE (), is the common name in English-speaking countries in Oceania for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational cours ...

unit. The course, initially attended only by men, eventually enrolled over a hundred community members. Others who began their painting careers through that course include

and

Louisa Napaljarri Louisa Lawson Napaljarri (Pupiya) (c. 1930–2001) was a Warlpiri-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Louisa commenced painting at Lajamanu, Northern Territory in 1986. Her work is held by the National Gallery of ...

. Western Desert artists such as Peggy Rockman will frequently paint particular ' dreamings', or stories, for which they have personal responsibility or rights, which in Peggy's case include Ngatijirri (

budgerigar The budgerigar ( ; ''Melopsittacus undulatus''), also known as the common parakeet or shell parakeet, is a small, long-tailed, seed-eating parrot usually nicknamed the budgie ( ), or in American English, the parakeet. Budgies are the only spe ...

), Warna (snake), Laju and Ngarlu. Peggy Rockman, together with linguist

Lee Cataldi Lee Cataldi (born 1942) is a contemporary Australian poet and linguist. Biography Cataldi was born in Sydney during World War II when, owing to her Italian heritage, she was technically an 'enemy alien'. As a child she lived in Hobart, moving b ...

, wrote ''Yimikirli: Warlpiri Dreamings and Histories'', a work sponsored by the

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, ...

, and published in 1994. It is a 200-page collection of oral texts, collected in Warlpiri and provided with English translations, for which Peggy Rockman was a source as well as editor. A senior dancer amongst her people, Peggy Rockman helped choose the site for, and participated in, a major ceremony for a 1993

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

documentary film, ''Milli Milli''. The ceremony, called Wati Kutjarra (Two men) Dreaming, was performed with others including fellow artist

Susie Bootja Bootja Napaltjarri Susie Bootja Bootja Napaltjarri (also referred to as Susie Bootja Bootja Napangardi, Napangarti, or Napangati) (c. 1935 – 16 January 2003) was an Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Born south-west of Balgo, Western Au ...

. Peggy Rockman's paintings have been hung in both public and commercial gallery exhibitions, including at the

Araluen Centre for Arts and Entertainment The Araluen Cultural Precinct, formerly the Araluen Centre for Arts & Entertainment, in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia, is a cultural precinct which includes the Araluen Arts Centre, the M ...

and the National Gallery of Victoria's Indigenous art exhibition "Paint Up Big". Commercial galleries showing her work have included William Mora Galleries in Melbourne. A work by Peggy Rockman, ''Mukaki – bush plum'', was included in the 2007

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award The National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA) is Australia's longest running Indigenous art award. Established in 1984 as the National Aboriginal Art Award by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin, ...

. Her paintings are held by the Art Gallery of New Wales, and the National Gallery of Victoria.

Collections

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rockman Napaljarri, Peggy Australian Aboriginal artists 1940s births Living people 20th-century Australian painters Australian women painters 21st-century Australian painters 20th-century Australian women artists 21st-century Australian women artists Artists from the Northern Territory Warlpiri people