Patrick MUNG MUNG is a senior artist at Warmun Art Centre and an elder at Warmun Community in the East Kimberley. Painting with natural earth pigments on canvas is a significant aspect of his art practice. His knowledge of his country and his cultural memory of family, land and work are powerfully linked in his work. Like his late father, George MUNG MUNG, Patrick is a strong crosscultural communicator. Mung Mung's work is influenced by the previous generation of Warmun artists, which include Rover THOMAS and Paddy JAMINJI - in its raw directness and composition.

Mung Mung was born at Spring Creek and worked as a stockman for many years on Texas Downs Station and nearby stations in the East Kimberley. He was the last worker to leave Texas Downs when it closed down in the 1970s. In 1991, following his father's death, it fell to Mung Mung to accompany his father’s carving 'Mary of Warmun' to Canberra for the exhibition 'Aboriginal Art and Spirituality' at the High Court of Australia. This occasion marked the beginning of a journey for Mung Mung, which was to see him take on his father’s role of senior artist, law and culture man. Patrick MUNG MUNG started painting in 1991, and was instrumental in establishing the artist-and-community-owned art centre at Warmun in 1998. Since that time, Mung Mung has led Gija performances of the Gurirr Gurirr around Australia and in Paris and Canada.

ARTIST STATEMENT: My real place is where I bin born, but my father’s side goes right down to Purnululu. All those paintings, I do that’s my gamerrumna – all my country. I bin to that country with my father, bin in that country where I bin grow up and back to that country where I bin born. Dad used to take me out bush, walking this country with just tea and sugar, and eating bush tucker: kangaroo, goanna and bush plum. When I was a small boy I learnt all about that country. I used to walk myself with Mum and Dad. They used to make us walk; learn us. My Dad showed me all my country, from Jarlarloo, right back to Texas. My country, that makes me strong. It takes me back to where I started; the country that I bin born and the country for my mother and father. I can walk all of this country and I’ll never get lost. I know every short cut all the way back to Texas, all the way back to Yunurrl. That’s what I put in my painting. When Warmun Art Centre started, I sit down and I start thinking about all my history, my country, my Dad’s country, and my grandmother’s country. [Painting] makes me think about all the Ngarranggarni, hills, trees and mountains, where we bin walk in this country, before whitefella, before all the grog start. Thinking back to those days when I bin growing up. My old people, we bin traveling this country. The old people, they used to lirrkarn us [teach us]: ‘burrem mungoo daarm’ - ‘this is your country’, they used to tell us. This your real country, where you bin born, and this your half country, on your Mum and Dad’s side. They would say: ‘After we finished [passed away] you have to take over, this country will belong to you’. That’s our leeyan now [that inner feeling for country], what our old people give to us here. I never forget. I carry it on right through and I give this to my grandkids. My Dad (George MUNG MUNG), he was two-way, real Law man and he worked the gadiya [whitefella] way too. He learn both way. I’m learning both side too. I still know my real Law side, and all my history. I’m getting all that back now, after all that trouble we bin had. We waking up now and getting’ it back. In the middle of our lives everything went wrong, we forget about the culture, but everything come back now. Now we start thinking to remind our children and our grandchildren about what we bin doing, about the early days. My Dad, he used to tell me all that Ngarranggarni [Dreamings], from when I was a small boy until I get on the horse. Then he teach me gadiya [whitefella] way, the horse and cattle way. So I bin all my life in stock work, and I think about this country as well. Gadiya used to trust me every way out in that country, every way. I bin leading them in the country, I never have no problems with gadiya. I bin the last one to finish with stockwork [on Texas Downs Station]. When I’m lookin at a photo of that country, or painting it, I think that I’m there. I can see Mum there riding and walking. I can see the old people, I get that feeling. I can see myself on my Dad’s shoulders, karlumbuny [spear] at one side, tea and sugar on the other. Look at this Purnululu, you can get lost in there.