Paddy Carrol Tjungurrayi


Also cited as: Paddy Carroll Tjungurrayi. Paddy Carroll Jungarai

Born:                 c.1927 or earlier
Region:               Western Desert
Community Centre:     Papunya
Language Bloc:        Arandic, Ngarrkic
Language:             Anmatyerre, Warlpiri
Social Affiliations:  Tjungurrayi subsection 

Subjects and Themes:	
witchetty grub, wallaby, bush potato, possum, carpet snake, budgerigar


Dreamings:	
Witchetty Grub, Wallaby, Yala (Bush Potato), Possum, Goanna, Woman, Man, Malyippi 
(Sweet Potato), Wapiti (Sweet Potato),  Yawalyurra (Bush Grapes), Mukaki and other 
Bush Tucker stories, Carpet Snake, and Ngati jirri (Budgerigar)


Commissions:	
Painted the concentric circles included in the design of the Bicentennial $A10 note 
issued in 1988. 

He was one of five Papunya Tula artists invited to submit designs for the mosaic 
for the new Parliament House in Canberra.


Collections:
Artbank, Sydney.
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth.
Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia.
Broken Hill Art Gallery.
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide.
Museum of Victoria, Melbourne.
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra.
The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth.
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, U.S.A.


Exhibitions:
1981, Anvil Art Gallery, Albury
1982, Brisbane Festival, Brisbane
1982, Georges Exhibition, Melbourne
1983, Mori Gallery, Sydney
1984, Anvil Art Gallery, Albury
1984, Painters of the Western Desert: Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Paddy Carroll 
      Tjungurrayi and Uta Uta Tjangala, Adelaide Artsfestival
1984, Papunya and Beyond, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
1984, Aboriginal Art, an Exhibition Presented by the Australian Institute of 
      Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra
1985, Dot and Circle, a retrospective survey of the Aboriginal acrylic paintings 
      of Central Australia, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne
1989, Aboriginal Art: The Continuing Tradition, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
1990, Art Dock, Contemporary Art from Australia, Noumea, New Caledonia
1990, Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, 
      Harvard University, University of Minnesota, Lake Oswego Center for the Arts, 
      United States of America
1991, The Painted Dream: Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings from the Tim and Vivien 
      Johnson Collection, Auckland City Art Gallery and Te Whare Taonga Aoteroa National  
      Art Gallery, New Zealand.
1992, Tjukurrpa, Museum fur Volkerkunde, Basel.
1992/3, New Tracks Old Land: An Exhibition of Contemporary Prints from Aboriginal 
      Australia, touring USA and Australia
1993, Aboriginal Art Exhibition, Kung Gubunga,Oasis Gallery, Broadbeach,Qld
1993, Tjukurrpa, Desert Dreamings, Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971-1993), 
      Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth WA
1993, The Tenth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of 
      the Northern Territory, Darwin
1994, The Eleventh National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery 
      of the Northern Territory, Darwin


Select Bibliography:
Crocker, A. (ed.), 1981, Mr Sandman Bring Me a Dream, Papunya Tula Artists 
Pty Ltd, Alice Springs and Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd, Sydney. (C) 

Isaacs, J., 1984, Australia's Living Heritage, Arts of the Dreaming, 
Lansdowne Press, Sydney. (C) 

Isaacs, J., 1989, Australian Aboriginal Paintings, Weldon Publishing, 
New South Wales. 
Johnson, V., 

1993, Twentieth Century Dreaming, Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Art and Asia 
Pacific, quarterly journal Vol 1 No 1 December. 

Johnson, V., 1994, The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, 
East Roseville, New South Wales. (C) 

Maughan, J., and Zimmer, J., (eds), 1986, Dot and Circle, a Retrospective 
Survey of the Aboriginal Acrylic Paintings of Central Australia, exhib. cat., 
Communication Services Unit, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne. (C) 

Premont, R., and Lennard, M., 1988, Tjukurrpa, Desert Paintings of Central 
Australia, Centre for Aboriginal Artists, Alice Springs. 

1990, Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, 
exhib. cat., Heytesbury Holdings Ltd., Perth.

1993, Tjukurrpa Desert Dreamings, Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971-1993), 
exhib. cat., Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth. (C)


© Discovery Media, Documentation Pty Ltd, and the Australian 
Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies



Notes:
Paddy Carroll's mother's country is the site of Winparrku near Haasts Bluff. Paddy grew up in 
this area, the family coming in to Haasts Bluff and Yuendumu to collect rations of bread and 
tea. His father was shot by Europeans in the Coniston massacre of 1928. Paddy knows little of 
his father's country; his mother refused to speak of it after the murder. Two of Paddy's 
brothers also fled to Queensland. The three finally met up again when Paddy was a young man in 
his early twenties and they found themselves in the same army unit stationed in Elliott near 
Darwin during World War II. 

Jimmy KITSON, a leading ceremonial figure in the Willowra community, is also Paddy's brother. 
After the war, Paddy lived in Alice Springs and Darwin, working across the country as a 
carpenter and stockman. He worked for thirty years at Narwietooma station, droving cattle 
across the Tanami and helping to lay telegraph lines in remote areas. He began painting in 
about 1977 when John Kean was running Papunya Tula Artists and Paddy and his family were 
living at Three Mile Bore, an outstation of Papunya. David CORBY was probably influential 
in his starting to paint. Paddy's extensive ceremonial knowledge is indicated by the range 
of Dreaming stories depicted in his paintings. 

For a time, he lived at Inapanu outstation, near Mt Lori, and sometimes in Papunya. In 1991 
he travelled to America with Dinny Nolan Tjampitjinpa, visiting colleges and Native American 
communities on a tour organised by poets Billy Marshall-Stoneking and Nigel Roberts. Paddy 
Carroll once remarked to a journalist puzzling over the meaning of a painting's iconography 
that 'We have had to learn your language, now it is time you learned ours.' Paddy and his 
second wife, Ruby Nangala, now live in their new house at Three Mile outstation, just north 
of Papunya.		
(Aboriginal Artists of the Western Desert. By Vivien Johnson)