The Pintupi Nine were a group of nine Pintupi people who remained unaware of European colonisation of Australia and lived a traditional desert-dwelling life in Australia's Gibson Desert until 1984, when they made contact with their relatives near Kiwirrkurra. [1] They are sometimes also referred to as "the lost tribe". The group were hailed as "the last nomads" in the international press when they left their nomadic life in October 1984. [2]
The group roamed between waterholes near Lake Mackay, near the Western Australia-Northern Territory border, wearing hairstring belts and armed with two-metre-long (6+1⁄2 ft) wooden spears and spear throwers, and intricately carved boomerangs. Their diet was dominated by goanna and rabbit as well as bush food native plants. The group was a family, consisting of two co-wives (Nanyanu and Papalanyanu) and seven children. There were four brothers (Warlimpirrnga, Walala, Tamlik, and Piyiti) and three sisters (Yalti, Yikultji and Takariya). The children were all in their teens, although their exact ages were not known; the mothers were in their late 30s.
On the death of the father – husband of the two wives [1] – the group travelled south to where they thought their relatives might be, as they had seen "smokes" in that direction. They encountered two campers from Kiwirrkura but due to a misunderstanding involving a shotgun they fled back north while the campers returned to the community and alerted others who then travelled back with them to find the group. The community members quickly realised that the group were relatives who had been left behind in the desert twenty years earlier, when many had travelled into the missions nearer Alice Springs. The community members travelled by vehicle to where the group were last seen and then tracked them for some time before finding them. After making contact and establishing their relationships, the Pintupi nine were invited to come and live at Kiwirrkura, where most of them still reside. [3]
The Pintupi-speaking trackers told them there was plenty of food, and water that came out of pipes; Yalti has said that this concept astounded them. [1] Medical examination revealed that the Tjapaltjarri clan (as they are also known) were "in beautiful condition. Not an ounce of fat, well proportioned, strong, fit, healthy". [4] At Kiwirrkura, near Kintore, they met with other members of their extended family.
In 1986, Piyiti returned to the desert. [5] Warlimpirrnga, Walala and Tamlik (now known as "Thomas") have gained international recognition in the art world as the Tjapaltjarri Brothers. [6] The three sisters, Yalti, Yikultji and Takariya, are also well-known Aboriginal artists whose works can be seen on exhibition and purchased from a number of art dealers. One of the mothers has died; the other has settled with the three sisters in Kiwirrkurra. [5]
Pintupi is an Australian Aboriginal language. It is one of the Wati languages of the large Pama–Nyungan family. It is one of the varieties of the Western Desert Language (WDL).
The Pintupi are an Australian Aboriginal group who are part of the Western Desert cultural group and whose traditional land is in the area west of Lake Macdonald and Lake Mackay in Western Australia. These people moved into the Aboriginal communities of Papunya and Haasts Bluff in the west of the Northern Territory in the 1940s–1980s. The last Pintupi to leave their traditional lifestyle in the desert, in 1984, are a group known as the Pintupi Nine, also sometimes called the "lost tribe".
Papunya Tula, registered as Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd, is an artist cooperative formed in 1972 in Papunya, Northern Territory, owned and operated by Aboriginal people from the Western Desert of Australia. The group is known for its innovative work with the Western Desert Art Movement, popularly referred to as "dot painting". Credited with bringing contemporary Aboriginal art to world attention, its artists inspired many other Australian Aboriginal artists and styles.
The Bindibu expedition was a series of three field trips mounted by anthropologist Donald Thomson to meet with and learn from Pintupi Indigenous Australians between 1957 and 1965.
Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri, was one of Australia's best-known artists of the Western Desert Art Movement, Papunya Tula.
Kiwirrkurra, gazetted as Kiwirrkurra Community, is a small community in Western Australia in the Gibson Desert, 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) east of Port Hedland and 700 kilometres (430 mi) west of Alice Springs. It had a population of 165 in 2016, mostly Aboriginal Australians. It has been described as the most remote community in Australia.
Takariya Napaltjarri is an Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. She has painted with Papunya Tula artists' cooperative. First exhibited in 1996, her work is held in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Parara Napaltjarri was a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Her paintings are included in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Topsy Gibson Napaltjarri, also known as Tjayika or Tjanika, is a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region.
Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula was a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Born near Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory, Turkey Tolson was a major figure in the Papunya Tula art movement, and the longest-serving chairman of the company formed to represent its artists.
Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri is an Australian Aboriginal artist. He is one of central Australia's most well-known indigenous artists.
Thomas Tjapaltjarri is an Australian Aboriginal artist. He and his brothers Warlimpirrnga and Walala have become well known as the Tjapaltjarri Brothers. Tjapaltjarri and his family became known as the last group of Aborigines to come into contact with modern, European society. They came out of the desert in 1984, and became known as "the last nomads".
Yalti Napangati is an Australian Aboriginal artist. She is a painter of the Western Desert style of art, and paints for the Papunya Tula school. Her husband, Warlimpirrnga, is also a well-known artist. They were both members of the famous Pintupi Nine, the last group of Aborigines living a traditional way of life in Australia.
Yukultji Napangati is an Aboriginal Australian artist. She is a painter of the Papunya Tula group of artists. She is part of a generation of female painters who followed in the footsteps of the original male Papunya Tula artists.
Walala Tjapaltjarri is an Australian Aboriginal artist.
Freddy West Tjakamarra was an Australian Aboriginal artist. He was a leader of the Pintupi people during their return to traditional lands in the 1980s. He was one of the founders of the Kiwirrkurra settlement in 1983. As a painter, West was part of the Western Desert movement, and was one of the first painters of the Papunya Tula school.
Pinta Pinta Tjapanangka was an Australian Aboriginal artist. He was one of the first members of the Papunya Tula art movement. He is a well-known painter of Western Desert art. He belonged to the Pintupi community, and painted stories from the Pintupi Dreaming (Tingari). He painted mythological events that happened around his homeland, including around Winparrku, Lake MacDonald and Lake Mackay.
Warri (1909–1979) and Yatungka (1919–1979) were an Aboriginal couple from the Mandildjara tribe of the Gibson Desert in Western Australia who spent about 40 years isolated and living nomadically in the Australian desert.
Ningura Napurrula was a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous Australian artist from the Western Desert, whose work was internationally acclaimed. Her works included a site-specific commission for the ceiling of the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, as well as appearing on an Australian postage stamp.
Yinarupa Nangala is a Pintupi from Western Australia. just west of the Kiwirrkurra community. Her works are held in major art collections including the Art Gallery of NSW, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, and the National Gallery of Victoria.