Title

WARLAPINNI, Freda

Author

Australian Art Print Network.

Source

[Not applicable]

Publication date

2001

Type

Biography

Language

English

Country of context

Australia

Full text

Freda Warlipini

Freda Warlipini was born at Mirrikawuyanga in the Tiwi Islands c.1928. She lived a fully traditional lifestyle until she was removed from her family, according to the Australian government’s assimilationist policies of that time, and sent to live at Garden Point, a mission on Melville Island. After her marriage she went to live on Bathurst Island where she stayed until her husband’s death. She then moved back to Melville Island to live at Milikapiti where she has became one of the important women participants and dancers of the Tiwi Pukumani and Kulama ceremonies.

Warlipini is adept at making Tunga (Tiwi bags), Parmajini (armbands) and other ceremonial regalia. Before becoming a contemporary painter on canvas and paper in the mid 1990s, she employed her typical abstract Tiwi geometric patterns as body and facial ornamentation, as well as decorating small barks and tunga for sale. Her work reflects the traditional body designs used for ceremony with the emphasis on the bold, black, red and yellow ochres. Her characteristically free brushwork is created with drastically modified brushes.

A senior artist, she has made prints with the Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne, since 1998. Warlipini rocketed to prominence with two solo shows in 1999 and her work has since been widely exhibited in Australia and overseas. The National Gallery of Victoria, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and the John McBride collection hold her work. Apart from her interest in painting, Warlipini is also deeply involved in traditional bush activities.

Biography courtesy of The Australian Art Print Network, 2001.

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