Ray James Tjangala
Ray James Tjangala est né autour des années 56/58 à Tjulyuru proche de Jupiter Well à 800km d’Alice Springs. Il était très jeune quand ses parents sont sortis du désert dans les années 60.
Il a appris à peindre dans les années 80 en assistant son père. Ray peint les symboles associés aux cycles « Tingari ». Symboles sacrés et la plupart du temps assez secrets sur les sites de Tjulna, Wala Wala, Yanula et de Jupiter Well localisé à l’Ouest de Kiwirrkura
Ray James Tjangala
Peintre Aborigène d’Australie
Language Group: Pintupi
Family History: Ray was a young boy when his father Anatjari Tjampitjinpa and her mother Mamuriu Napaltjarri came in from the desert in 1963. One of the last groups to do so under the direction of Welfare Patrols lead by Jeremy LongThe patrol, with Nosepeg Tjupurrula and a Tjampitjinpa from Papunya, had been looking for them on the road, the original road made by Len Beadel west into W.A. from Sandy Blight Junction.
They met at “Mukala”, at the time Tjangala and his family were living on “bush mangari” i.e. damper made from seeds and they were getting scarce water from rockholes. Tjangala and his family travelled to Papunya by truck with the Welfare Patrol. This is well documented and photographs of Tjangala and the group appear in “The Lizard Eaters”, a book by Douglas Lockwood.
In 1984 Ray was involved with the first contact of the last group to come out of the Gibson desert, they are her Tjapaltjarri uncles, his mother’s brothers.
Ray is the brother of acclaimed artist’s Mantua James Nangala, Yinarupa Nangala and George Yapa Yapa Tjangala. (now deceased)
Ray lives at Kiwirrkura, WA. With his wife Donna and their children and grandchildren.
Dreamings: Ray learnt to paint whilst assisting his father at Kintore in the early 1980’s. Ray paints designs associated with the secret Tingari ceremonies at the sites of Tjulna, Wala Wala, Yanula and Jupiter Well located west of Kiwirrkura, he is also custodian of other sites of her father’s country.
