Born: c. 1970s

Died: 2024

Language Group: Pintupi

Region: WIlkinkarra (including the sites of Marawa, Tarkurrnga, Njami, Ungarta and Yarrawangu) Gibson Desert, Western Australia

Thomas Tjapaltjarri and his family group were amongst the last
nomadic desert dwellers to leave the desert to join their kinsmen in the
small settlements that had grown around the periphery of their
homelands. They were named “the Last Nomads” and “the Group of Nine”
when they appeared in the tiny community of Kiwirrkura in Western
Australia in 1984.

When the family came in from the desert it was a momentous event.
Until then they had remained isolated from their relatives who had
chosen to leave their desert homelands twenty years earlier. The family
group had roamed between waterholes around Lake Mackay, along the
border country between Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
Their diet was dominated by goanna and rabbit and bush-foods harvested
from native plants.

The family group consisted of four brothers (Warlimpirrnga, Walala,
Tamlik, and Yari Yari), three sisters (Yardi, Yikultji and Tjakaraia)
and two mothers (Nanyanu and Papalanyanu). The boys and girls were all
in their early-to-late teens, although their exact ages were not known;
the mothers were in their late 30s.

The father had died, possibly from eating spoiled canned food that he
found at an old mining camp. After this, the group travelled south to
where they thought their relatives might be, as they had seen signs of
smoke in that direction. They met up with a man from Kiwirrkura, but
there was confusion, and the group fled north again while he returned to
the community to alert others of their meeting. The community members
came looking for the group, and quickly realised that they were nine
relatives who had been left behind in the desert twenty years earlier.

Finally the community members travelled by vehicle to where the group
was last seen, and 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. Both Thomas Tjapaltjarri and Walala Tjapaltjarri took an
interest in the painting movement that was happening around them, and
established their names as artists painting the Tingari stories of their
ancestral country. Aboriginal art status – Highly regarded artist.

Exhibitions

2025 At The Gallery, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle
2025 The Pintupi Nine: Tradition and Legacy, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2024 Small is beautiful, Japingka Gallery, Freemantle
2024 Pintupi Nine, Art Mob, Hobart
2024 ICONIC, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2024 Tingari - Desert Men, Japingka Gallery, Freemantle
2023 Central Desert Showcase, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2023 Survey, Works from the Dalrymple Community Cultural Centre Trust
Collection, Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts, Townsville QLD
2022 Nations 2022, Art Mob, at the Henry Jones Art Hotel Packing Room, Hobart
2022 Connection, National Museum of Australia, Canberra
2022 Sandhill Country | Paintings of Inland Australia, Japingka Gallery, Freemantle
2022 Art Mob's 20th Birthday Exhibition, Art Mob, Hobart
2021 Private Collection | Private View: One Collector's Passion & Soul, Cooee Art, Redfern
2021 50 Years of Papunya Tula Artists, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2021 Voyage across Aboriginal Australia - Founders' Favourites, Fondation
Burkhardt-Felder Arts et Culture, Moitiers, Switzerland
2020 Central Focus, Art Mob, Hobart
2019 An Exhibition on TJAPALTJARRI Brothers from the Indigenous Lost Tribe, Mandel Aboriginal Art Gallery, Melbourne
2019 Defining Tradition: the first wave & its disciples, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2019 Pintupi Artists of the Western Desert, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
2019 Warlimpirrnga, Walala and Thomas Tjaplajarri Exhibitions, Mitchell Fine Art Gallery, Brisbane
2018 Three Brothers, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2012 Meeting Cultures: Australian Contemporary Aboriginal Art - ARTECLASICA (Argentina Art Fair)
2010 Lost Tribe, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney

Awards and Recognition

2022 Connection | Songlines from Australia's First Peoples in a spectacular
immersive experience, National Museum of Australia, Canberra

Collections

Hank Ebes Collection, Melbourne

The Henderson Family Collection, Sydney

Pat Corrigan Collection, Sydney

Luciano Benetton Collection, Venice

Fondation Burkhardt-Felder Arts et Culture, Motiers, Switzerland

Dalrymple Community Cultural Centre Trust Collection, Charters Towers QLD