George Hairbrush Tjungurrayi Biography

George was born around 1943 North West of Kiwirrkurra, loocated at the Gibson Desert, WA. His sisters are Naata Nungarrayi and Nganngi (Nancy) Nungurrayi, both well established artists too. In 1962, a school teacher named Geoffrey Bardon, encouraged some of the senior men to paint a blank school wall. Geroge's uncle Charlie Tarawa Tjungurrayi was one of the men involved. The school murals sparked immense interest and is seen as the catalyst of the Papunya art movement. George served as an 'apprentice' to the senior artists in the Papunya art community. He was surrounded and encourages by some of the great artists in the Aboriginal art movement and in 1976, he began to paint in his own right. George's artworks symbolise ancestral journeys and ceremonial body paint. In particular, George paints the Tingari stories of his ancestral country which covers the sites around Kiwirrkura, Lake Mackay, Kulkuta etc. The Tingari cycle embodies a vast network of Aboriginal Dreaming songlines that trasverse the Western Desert region of australia. Deep knowledge of Tingari business is still very secretive and restricted to men in the community who hold an appropriate level of seniority. There are however, public stories that do not disclose secret/sacred knowledge.