Tommy May

Wangkajungka/Walmajarri Elder
Central Kimberley, WA

Wangkatjunga/Walmajarri Elder Tommy May was born to rainmaking desert people at Yarrnkurnja in the Great Sandy Desert, where he danced and sang Kurtal, a ceremony relating to the main jila/waterhole in his Country. He learned how to hunt before he had any contact with kartiya /Europeans.

Like many young men at the time he was denied an education and instead removed from his country to work as forced labour on various cattle stations. In 1968, authorities phased in equal wages for Aboriginal pastoral workers and station owners refused to pay for Indigenous labour, leaving Aboriginal stockmen like Tommy displaced with no work.

Many of these men would go on to create cultural objects to trade for food and other goods. This survival response would also mark the rebirth of their art and culture.

The first paintings Tommy had ever seen were cave paintings. His own artistic journey saw him create more permanent and portable artworks, evolving into a painter and printmaker with a signature style. He is recognised as one of Australia’s most significant Aboriginal artists. A leading art curator advises people to view a Tommy May artwork in real life as it ‘just hums, it vibrates’.

Tommy’s intense thirst for knowledge led him to become a founder of the Karrayili Adult Education Centre where he learned to read and write his own language and English.

Founder of the Mangkaja Art Centre, where he worked his entire career, this model would set a template for the remote art centres of today. Tommy’s ability to create sustainable structures that would outlive him, symbolise his role as a change agent and innovator.

His leadership story is strong. He became a key figure in arts and culture, as Deputy Chairman of Mangkaja Arts and Chairman of Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Cultural Centre. For over two decades, he was an executive of the Association of Northern Kimberley and Arnhem Aboriginal Artists.

Significantly, Tommy was also a contributing artist to the great Ngurarra Canvas, one of the largest and most spectacular Aboriginal Western Desert paintings. Senior traditional owners of the Great Sandy Desert painted this as an expression of their links to their country. It was used in their successful native title claim and this historic canvas became Australia’s first official artistic Native Title document.

While art was key to his own survival, Tommy has been a critical figure in shaping the art world for all Indigenous people.

Artist: Russell James

Size: 152cm x 152cm

Medium: Canvas

Artist: Russell James

Size: 152cm x 152cm

Medium: Canvas

Artist: Russell James

Size: 152cm x 152cm

Medium: Canvas