"PANU"

2011.12.10 By Zeana Haroun

We painted these dreaming’s on the school doors because the children should learn about our Law.  We want our children to learn about and know our Law, our Dreaming’s.  That is why we painted these dreamtime stories” – Paddy JAPALJARRI STEWART

In the early 1970s the people of Yuendumu began transferring their traditional stories, dreaming’s (tjukurrpa) and ground paintings to western mediums such as canvas boards and plywood; then to the doors of the Yuendumu school.  In 1984 five aboriginal artists, including Paddy, painted thirty iconic doors at the Yuendumu school.  These thirty doors represented the dreaming of the Warlpiri people, an extraordinary history of sacred rituals, painted to remind the children of their patrimony – the web of sites and obligations that extend across Warlpiri country.

The painting of the school doors was initially conceptualized to educate the children of the community, what better way to ingrain culture than by putting it on the doors the children would need to pass through repeatedly on a daily basis; but it also had an impact on the larger community – it bought together five artists from two classicatory groups, kirda (father, owner) and kurdungurlu (teacher, servant, worker, policeman).  These two groups learnt and shared the different tjukurrpa’s depicted on each door openly, something that in normal life would not have necessarily happened.  Each door represented either the Honey Ant tjukurrpa, or any of the many other tjukurrpa’s – Water, Snake, Possum, Kangaroo, Big and Small Yam, just to name a few, that are sacred to these people and their lands.

The Yuendumu community is in the Tanami Desert, 300 km north-west from Alice Springs, the remoteness of this special community has helped the kinship maintain their strong language, social and spiritual traditions, which are the inspiration for the beautiful, artistic expressions of the association’s older artists.  

For thousands of years the Warlpiri people traced their dreaming symbols onto ground paintings as part of their ceremonies and when the ceremonies were over the images would be brushed away by hand or by the desert winds.  Nomadic, desert life is all about change, but the doors remained in place at the school for twelve years, resisting erasure despite the desert wind and sun, surviving robust treatment from Warlpiri school children.

We wake and we open doors, we work and we open doors, what would life be without doors? Western society would be lost without them, but what good is a door in the desert? To Aboriginal culture, and the old traditional way of life, doors served no functional purpose whatsoever.  It was thus ironic and poignant that the painting of the Warlpiri tjukurrpa’s  should be done on the school doors, a fitting marriage of two very different cultures finding a common place to communicate, through the education of the young and the future.

Of those five pioneering men, only Paddy JAPALJARRI STEWART is still alive.  A gentle, intelligent man, incredibly knowledgeable about the country and the laws associated with it, he has had an extraordinary life as an artist.  He was born in Mungapunju, just south of Yuendumu and as a young man he was a station worker at Mt Allen, Mt Dennison and in the top end of Australia.  His artistic career commenced in the early 1980’s and has only gained momentum and significance through the years, over 100 group shows have included this cultural heavyweight’s work and it remains a mystery why it has taken until 2012 to witness the first ever solo exhibition of his works at the tender age of 76 or so.  Paddy (affectionately known as ‘Cookie’ in reference to his early years as a cook in the Papunya Tula community) has had his work added to some of the most renowned museums in Australia - Flinders University Art Museum, South Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, just to name a few.  This amazing man is a force to be reckoned with and has accomplished so much in his lifetime – from a school bus driver, to a remarkable artist who has travelled to Paris with five others creating a ground painting installation at the exhibition 'Magiciens de la Terre' at the Centre Georges Pompidou.
 
Indeed Paddy was widely acknowledged as being the force behind the school project given his close ties to the school and his role of teaching young children both kardiya and yapa (non-aboriginal and aboriginal).
 

In 2000 Paddy undertook to produce 30 etchings of the original doors in collaboration with Paddy Sims. The first print of the etchings was all on one page and had its debut alongside the Yuendumu doors while they were exhibited in Alice Springs. The etchings in a set were launched in 2001, to great acclaim with the set winning the Telstra, 16th National Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Award.

The iconic doors have since been unhinged permanently and are on display at the South Australian Museum as part of their permanent collection, but we at ReDot Fine Art Gallery are fortunate enough to have the only exhibit replicas of the school project along with the artist proof of the works on paper.  Paddy has painted this entire series, recounting and re-telling each of the dreaming’s depicted on those iconic doors so many years ago.

The combination of Paddy’s stately importance within the Warlpiri community, the deferral to his ancestral knowledge, his advancing years, combined with the impact and cultural significance of the doors, make this particular exhibition a once in a lifetime experience.  This is not a show to miss.  This is a show that will make an irreversible impression on your understanding and appreciation of culture, art and Aboriginal civilization.

ReDot invites anyone fascinated by indigenous art and culture to step into a world that is familiar in its simplicity but memorizing in its depth and wonder.  The living stories virtually leap off each canvas and beg the viewer to look more deeply for meaning and consequence, for understanding and order.
 
ReDot Fine Art Gallery is honoured to host Paddy JAPALJARRI STEWART’s first ever Solo Exhibition, titled ‘Panu’ (All).  A fitting climax to a career of a man who’s knowledge of the desert and its mystical laws is ALL encompassing.  The show will run February 15 2012 - March 31 2012 at ReDot Fine Art Gallery, 39 Keppel Road, Unit #02-06, Singapore.