Jimmy Wululu

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Jimmy Wululu

Born:                 1936		
Community Centre:     Ramingining				
Outstation/ Country:  Djiliwirri		
Region:               Central Arnhem Land 			
Local Group:          Daygurrgurr		
Social Affiliations:  Yirritja Moiety, Bulany 	
Language:             Gupapuyngu

Subjects:
Artists totems are Niwuda (honey), Djalambu (hollow log), Eel Tailed Catfish. The distinctive herringbone pattern used in many of Wululu's works represents the bones of the Eel Tailed Catfish.

Aboriginal artist Jimmy Wululu was born around 1936 at Mangbirri, a coastal settlement in Central Arnhem Land. His country is Djiliwirri, and his artist totems are Niwuda (honey), Djalumbu (hollow log), and Eel-Tailed Catfish. The distinctive herring bone pattern used in many of Wululu's work represents the bones of the Eel-Tailed Catfish. The design is also painted on people and objects for ceremonies, as well as on common objects such as dilly bags and spear throwers to make them more powerful.

Jimmy Wululu went to school at the mission on Milingimbi, one of the Crocodile Islands in the Arafura Sea just offshore from the Arnhem Land coast. He belonged to the second generation to grow up on the mission, yet most, including Wululu, still went through an intense Aboriginal education independent of their exposure to Christianity and European ways. Many of his extended family moved from their spiritual homeland, Djiliwrri, to live more permanently at the mission.

After the Second World War and before his Djapi (first initiation) Wululu and some friends walked over 600 kilometers west across Arnhem Land to Darwin, a journey undertaken by many of their generation, and one of the key events of his life. In Darwin Wululu lived and worked with white Australia by day and was involved in complex traditional ceremonial life at night.

In the late 1950's, back in Milingimbi, Wululu began work in the building industry, including work in an innovative scheme using ant-beds to make mud-brick houses. Wululu's paintings are in the classic Arnhem land tradition, with its use of ochres and sheets of bark, and intricate cross-hatching over the image. Wululu's experience in the building trade, however, led to his practice, rare in Aboriginal artists, of making preliminary drawings, drafting his images in pencil.

His earliest paintings from the 1970's were naturalistic images of turtles and other animals. His later works moved directly into minimalist body designs abstracted from nature, a development related to his increased involvement in ceremonial life and the sophisticated visual forms to which his more senior ritual status exposed him.

Wululu worked as both a painter and builder in the 1960's and 1970's, then took up fishing, taking out a commercial fishing license. He was also one of the artists to contribute several bone coffins, made from painted hollow logs, to the 'Aboriginal Memorial' installation, made up of 200 burial poles symbolising 200 years of white occupation of Australia, which was part of the 1998 Biennale of Sydney. This exhibition has since toured Europe including the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg and is on permanent display at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.

In 1989 Wululu travelled to New York to attend the opening of the major exhibition 'Dreamings' and participate in related symposiums. In 1989 Wululu won the Rothman's Foundation Award for the best painting in traditional media at the Sixth national Aboriginal Art Award in Darwin. In 1992, he was the recipient of an Artist Grant from the Aboriginal Art Unit of the Australia Council. In November 1992 Wululu laid out a traditional sand sculpture as part of a joint exhibition with Phillip Gudthaykudthay at the Canberra School of Art.

In 1996 he also made another sand sculpture in the forecourt of the Northern Territory's Legislative Assembly building for the Bougainvillea festival in Darwin. In 1997 Jimmy Wululu was also one of the artists who participated in a series of workshops held in Ramingining, by printmaker Theo Tremblay, during which they produced an important series of prints, "The Ramingining Print Suite', based on the Wagilag Sisters' creation story. This workshop represents an unique collaboration by celebrated artists.