After his birth his mother succumbed to the lure of alcohol in Kalgoorlie and struggled to look after a new baby properly.  Timo’s father came and took him to Mt Margaret. He spent his formative years here with his father, Neville McCarthur and his stepmother Alkawari. They lived at Mt Margaret until the family moved to Warburton, closer to his father’s traditional lands. Alkawari did not speak Pitjantjatjara or Ngaanyatjarra as she was from a different Aboriginal tribe, but spoke in English to Timo and he is now fluent in all three languages.

Once back in country Timo’s father took him to all the culturally significant places. He wanted to introduce him to the country, to the spirit caretakers and teach him the law. “My father took me to Lake Baker, all around, rockhole and all. I know all these places but I can’t show them. Millmillpa (dangerously sacred). I’m taking over this country now, as my father is getting old. I’m the only son and people say we are like twins, my father and me. We look the same. I know how to use spears – he taught me everything.”

Timo went through Men’s Business initiation at Warburton. The group travelled down to Tjuntjuntjara on the business run.  “My father’s really a Spinifex Man. His brothers are Hogan and Jamieson”.

After going through business Timo settled in Tjuntjuntjara and lived with his mother. His father visited regularly before he got too old to make the long journey.  For a brief period in the 2000’s Timo lived at Kalka as his mother married a man from there. He did his first canvas, a painting of the Lake Baker with Ninuku Artists in 2004. After a long break of nearly 10 years he has started painting again.  Painting his country, the vast salt lake, the place he now has cultural obligations to look after. A place of power and danger.

“I’ve rediscovered my love for painting. I do painting all the time now. I’m painting my country Lake Baker”

In 2021 Timo’s work ‘Lake Baker’ was the overall winner in prestigious Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Art Awards. His works are highly sought after and hang in major public institutions and art museums as well as substantial private collections.

During the 1950s, Myrtle and her family were affected by the British Nuclear testing program. They witnessed the "great black cloud" and moved further southwest to escape the "poison." At the same time, a severe drought swept across the region, prompting Myrtle and many Spinifex people to relocate to Cundeelee Mission. It was here that Myrtle first encountered western influences—she saw white people, wore clothes for the first time, and discovered the Transcontinental railway line, a destination for many desert people seeking food rations.

Throughout her life, Myrtle remained a knowledgeable and respected desert woman. She spent her later years in Tjuntjuntjara, returning to traditional Spinifex country. From 1997 onwards, Myrtle played an invaluable role in the Spinifex Arts Project, contributing both collaboratively and through solo works. Her paintings of "ngura" (homelands) captured the spirit and stories of her beloved country.

Myrtle's legacy lives on through her art, her contributions to her community, and the timeless connection she shared with her land.

As a late teenager or nyiingka living in seclusion from Aboriginal society prior to initiation into manhood, Simon and an older brother made an epic journey from the Spinifex lands to a Christian Mission at Mt. Margaret. He traveled there via the frontier mining towns of Laverton and Leonora.  The older brother chose to stay at Mt. Margaret and Simon returned to the Great Victoria Desert and initiation into manhood. 

Some time after initiation Simon traveled across the Serpentine Lakes into South Australia to find a wife. He married Inyika and they had two of their seven children in country before going to Cundeelee Mission around 1960. A second wife, Ngantiri, also traveled in with Simon’s family group. From 1995 Simon Hogan was a prominent member of a group of senior traditional owners from Spinifex country who lobbied the WA State Government for Native Title.

Although Simon spoke no English he was a confident, initiated Pitjantjatjara man who spoke to senior government officials regarding ownership of country and culture. Exclusive Native Title rights were granted to Simon Hogan and the Spinifex people in 2000 of over 55 000 sq kms of the Great Victoria Desert in WA. In 1997 the Spinifex people began painting with acrylic paints on canvas, painting traditional stories using this contemporary medium. Simon again took a leading working with intense concentration and focus to translate Tjukurpa (stories or mythologies) into public artworks. The Spinifex people also produced collaborative works two of which, men’s and women’s, were used in the preamble to the successful Spinifex Native Title claim.

Simon is an effusive individual who introduces himself as “Mr. Hogan” and will happily recount his many exhibition travels throughout Australia and the world. For over a decade he carried a photo of himself and Gough Whitlam in his wallet until the photo eventually disintegrated. The photo was taken during the 1998 Pila Nguru Native Title touring exhibition. 

The Whitlams were invited to open the exhibition in Canberra. In 2009 Simon traveled to Linz, Austria to be an Artist in Residence during the 2009, Linz Cultural Capital of Europe Exposition. He is a tireless ambassador for Spinifex custom and culture. In 2015 well into his 80’s he travelled to London representing the Spinifex people at an exhibition at the British Museum, where he met with HRH Prince Charles.

Over the years Simon Hogan’s enthusiasm and focus for painting on linen has not diminished. His status as a painter in his own community and on a national and international level has steadily increased over these years making him one of the most sought after Spinifex artists. His works feature in many public and private collections.

Connections between the Land, the provider of food, water and shelter and the Tjukurpa a spiritual understanding of the world are finely interwoven in his paintings, creating works of an elegant abstraction. Each work is related to a specific site and ancestral beings and is strongly based on his experience and perception of the Law and the Land. When he was a young child he lived a traditional lifestyle walking along Tjukurpa tracks that linked sacred sites and water sources. 

From the tjilpis (old men) he learnt the ways of life in the desert and Anangu social order, law, culture, Tjukurpa and ceremony. Patju first learnt about Christianity from Mr Wade, the missionary who came to the desert on camel preaching the Bible and giving out tea and damper. When the mission was established Patju spent some time there learning English to read and write hymns and Bible stories. Patju trained to be a preacher at the mission at Ernabella. 

He is also a strong cultural man who practices traditional cultural business and inma (ceremonial singing and dancing), carves punu (ceremonial and utilitarian objects) and hunts malu (kangaroo), kalaya (emu), kipara (bush turkey) and rabbit.

In his paintings Patju refers to many of the Tjukurpa of the country of the Great Victoria Desert including the Wati Kipara (Bush Turkey), Wati Kutjara (Two Water-Snake Men), Kalaya (Emu), Wati Pira (Moon Man) and Minyma Kutjara (Two Sisters). His images are visual representations of the epic journeys and creation stories of the country. References to important landforms, rockholes and Tjukurpa tracks implicitly evoke the tjukuritja beings (of the dreaming), their interactions and activities. References to features in the country by desert artists are heavily loaded with complex symbolic meanings and interconnected layers of cultural references.

In the 1950's Lennard encountered Europeans for the first time and with his family spent some time living at Warburton Mission where he learnt to speak english. He later joined relatives at Cundeelee Mission and typically spent much time “out bush“ following ceremonial cycles and going through the many stages of Aboriginal law.

Lennard also paints the Wati Kutjara Tjukurpa of Pukara, a story depicting two snakes, a father and son who are travelling across country during ceremonial time. Along with the Kungkarangkalpa Tjukurpa the Wati Kutjara story is one of the most important and wide ranging stories in Spinifex country. Although much of the specific detail is dangerous and secret the general actions and directions of the father and son are well known and understood to have been essential to the formation and activation of much of the country.

Water is a precious resource and thus permanent waterholes have sacred associations. They are guarded by their creators, Wanampis, Dreaming Serpent Beings, who have magical abilities. These Dreaming Beings are powerful and often dangerous so Anangu must approach them with respect and perform certain ritual according to the Law.

Lennard has lived all of his life in the Great Victoria Desert although travels to Warburton and Patjar to spend time with family from the north. He has been painting with the Spinifex Arts Project since its inception in 1997 and is an invaluable member of the group.

Living most of the time in Tjuntjuntjara, Lennard is married to well-known artist Ngalpingka Simms. They live with their extended families.

He started painting in 2016 and has a natural aesthetic with a painterly quality about his work. His works feature references to the Spinifex Country, the vast plains and sand hills, country holding secret water holes and 'Mamu Tjina' or scorer footprints. Mick lives a solitary life with a large contingent of dogs that he keeps as company.

Ian's compositions center on the life affirming sites he depicts and each are multi layered with meaning. Many are surrounded with secrecy and only surface details can be recorded. His site of Tuwan is where the Tjulpu Tjuta Tjukurpa (Many Birds Creation Line) manifests. This is an epic Mens’ Creation narrative that follows the journey south of the Wati Nyii Nyii (Zebra Finch Men) where they place their many spears to save the world from being inundated with floodwaters.

In 1997 when the Spinifex Arts Project first began Ian was keen to join the group of painters. He took to the medium of paint on canvas with fluency and has been painting his birthplace and surrounding country since then and has exhibited and been collected in both Australia and overseas. Ian is an impressive and skilled hunter, bush mechanic and craftsman who lives in Tjuntjuntjara Community with his wife Kathleen Donnegan, also an artist and their extended family.

Tragically some Spinifex people perished during this frightening and confusing time. However, family groups moved to the mission of Cundeelee where they existed for about twenty five years maintaining a semi nomadic lifestyle. In the early 1980's a core group of Spinifex people including Byron moved back west into their country making camp first at Yakatunya north of the Nularbor and later establishing the community of Tjuntjuntjara where the group lives today.

Byron is an enthusiastic member of the Spinifex Arts Project and has been painting since 1997 when the project commenced. Byron is quite an experimental painter and is developing a unique and successful style.

Painting his homeland area which he knows intimately Byron cites the following places; Tjuntjalla, Tjawarr, wawartju, Kulapi, Ilkurlka, Warlpirltjara, Tjukurlpa, Mirramirratjara, Pulitjii, Kanguu, Pina, Amantju, Muyu, Pirarpi, Kulapi, Tjuntala, Wayara, Tuwan, Tarantjara, Ilkaru, Tjimara, Kanmurtja, Paupiyala, Kapi Piti Kutjara, Kuru Ala, Puyu, Minga and Kamantjii. This is an area which covers many hundreds of kilometres in central and northern Spinifex country.

Ned has been painting with the Spinifex Art Project since its beginning in 1997. His works have been included in major exhibitions nationally and internationally. Ned was one of 17 men who collaboratively painted their particular estates, which merged together, formed the Men’s Native Title painting. Ned continues to paint his “run” - the area around where he was born and subsequently lost his umbilical cord.

Over the life of the project Ned has not been a prolific individual painter. He has, however, been an integral contributor to various men’s collaborative works. It is the quantum of collaborative works produced which has been a distinguishing feature of the Spinifex Art Project since its beginning.

Roy didn't visit his father’s country since first contact, as it was remote and inaccessible. He tended to paint his own and his mother’s country. Roy was brought in from the Great Victoria Desert to Cundeelee mission in the late 1950s on one of several expeditions mounted by the missionaries. At the time he was a late teenager or nyiingka, in seclusion from Aboriginal society prior to initiation into manhood. He was taken by train to Ooldea in S.A. and walked about 120 km south to a shed tank about 30km north of Yalata. Here people from Yalata, Cundeelee and many from the northern Pitjantjatjara area had gathered for Tjilkatja – men’s initiation ceremonies. 

Some time after initiation Roy walked back into the desert and lived there for a while with family yet to move into Cundeelee. He eventually returned to Cundeelee and resided there until the move back into Spinifex in the early 1980s. Roy married and raised his wife’s brother’s two sons. With Kumanara Anderson and other older men and women, Roy was a major driving force in returning the Spinifex people to their country and representing and negotiating the unbroken connection to country which was the key element in the Federal Court decision to grant the Spinifex people exclusive Native Title over 55,000 sq. km. in 2000.

Roy continued to be a venerated Elder and was routinely elected to the boards of the Spinifex Land Council and Tjuntjuntjara Community Council. His unique painting style is somewhat reminiscent of Kiwirkurra mens’ designs from Pintupi country hundreds of kilometres to the northwest and has influenced other artists with his bold and sometimes geometric designs. He was a strong force within the Spinifex Arts Project and a much sought after painter. Roy passed away quietly in the night on 23rd June 2018.

At Cundeelee, Lawrence was introduced to European people who provided clothing and foods such as sugar, flour, and tobacco. In the 1980s, the Spinifex People were relocated from the mission to a cattle station called Coonana, where they established a new base for themselves. A community was set up at Coonana, but most of the elders moved eastward, returning to their homelands.

Lawrence moved between Coonana and Yakatunya for the next 15 years. He began painting with the Spinifex Arts Project in 1999, where his work contributed to the preservation and celebration of Spinifex culture and stories. He spent his later years at Tjuntjuntjara Community with his extended family.

Lawrence's legacy continues to inspire, leaving behind a rich cultural and artistic contribution that reflects the resilience and strength of the Spinifex people. Read Less

Noli found immediate respect with the older men of the settlement for his vast knowledge of country and Law and this has not changed as time has moved, with Noli still consulted on all things Spinifex. His young life spent roaming the plains and sandhills is now seen as an invaluable education for the young generaons of Spinifex children who have adjusted to sedentary community life. Noli began his painting career with a couple of works in 2004 with Ninuku Artists at Kalka where he was residing.

After his first few works he didn"t pick up a brush again until 2016 in Tjuntjuntjara. He now lives and works at Tjuntjuntjara with the Spinifex Arts Project.