Whiskey Tjukangku

Whiskey Tjukangku is an Australian Aboriginal artist from South Australia. He paints for Iwantja Arts, the community co-operative at Indulkana on the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands. He is an elder of the Yankunytjatjara people, and a ngangkaṟi (traditional healer).^[1] One of his works was chosen as a finalist for the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2012.^[2] His brother and his granddaughter Kaylene Whiskey is also an artist.^[3][4]

Tjukangku was born around 1939,^[5] in the bush near Umuwa in north-western South Australia.^[3] The name "Whiskey" was given to him by one of his friends when he was a young boy. It is said that Tjukangku took this name because he could not pronounce his own Aboriginal name.^[2]

Tjukangku grew up at the mission in Ernabella and at De Rose Hill,^[1] a cattle station located along the Stuart Highway.^[2][3] He never went to school. As a child, he was taught about working with horses and cattle at De Rose Hill. By the time he was a teenager, Tjukangku began working for the station as a jackaroo, mustering cattle.^[2][6] He worked as a stockman for many years, on several stations throughout central Australia.^[1][3][7] He worked for a long time on the land of the Arrernte people (in the Northern Territory), which he depicts in many of his works.^[2] When he was older, he moved back south, closer to his homeland (where he and his family were born). He settled at Indulkana, and has lived there ever since.^[1]

Tjukangku was one of the first men to begin painting at Indulkana, and was one of the original members of Iwantja Arts.^[1] In addition to painting, he also does printmaking using the intaglio method (cutting designs into wooden objects).^[1] Beginning in his early 70s, Tjukangku is reported to suffer from dementia. He still works as a full-time artist, however, and makes an average of one or two artworks per week.^[6]

His artworks depict personal reflections on his travels and experiences in the central Australian desert.^[1] It is often just memories, about where he used to work or a place he fondly remembers.^[8] This is different to most traditional Yankunytjatjara artists, who usually paint about their Wapar (Dreaming). A common motif featured in Tjukangku's artworks is puṉu (wood that is used for making traditional tools and objects). This is often both his subject and his medium.^[1] Objects in his artworks are often more figurative (realistic) than in most Western Desert art, but still contain elements and shapes that are very clearly abstract.^[1][3] Tjukangku paints in natural earthy tones, using rich shades of red, browns, ochres and black. He uses fields and lines of white dots to highlight shapes and movement.^[2][3]

Tjukangku's work has been featured in group shows at major galleries since 2010. He held his first solo exhibition in April–May 2011, in Alice Springs.^[1] He held a second solo show at the same venue the next year, in July–August 2012.^[3][8] One of the works exhibited at his first solo show was bought by the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne.^[5] Other works by Tjukangku are held in several of Australia's major private galleries.^[6] Some of his earliest prints are displayed in the South Australian Museum.^[1]

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