Beerbee Mungnari
Yartankarl 2009
Natural ochre on canvas 80 x80cm
Catalogue:45009
- Beerbee Mungnari and Churchill Cann : 2010
- First and Second Generation Artists from Waringarri Aboriginal Arts and Warmun Art Centre: 2009
- Dog Dreaming of Warmun: 2007
Beerbee Mungnari was born at Waterloo Station, Northern Territory in 1933. His parents 'belong to Rosewood' and this is where he was brought up on a diet, he recalls, of 'kangaroo soup and goat's milk'. He has lived and worked most of his life as a stockman working on various stations in the East Kimberley region. He grew up at Rosewood Station , then managed by Jack Kilfoyle, and went to work at l6 years of age, on Texas Downs Station. The move to Texas was prompted by a close friendship between the then station manager, Jimmy Cline and Mungnari's farther. Cline had been head stockman for Kilfoyle and had recently moved to manage Texas Downs Station. The workers would often spend evenings carving boab nuts with a sharp piece of wire or blade. They would carve turkey, emu, snake and crocodile on the nuts. Mungnari has many stories of the country south and east of Kununurra before Argyle Dam was built. He often recalls how up to 700 cattle were driven by six men, a camp cook and one 'off sider.