DOB: c.1939 - 
BORN:  Yupurirri, NT
LANGUAGE GROUP: Warlpiri/ Luritja
COMMUNITY: Papunya, NT

​

Don Tjungurrayi was born at Yupurirri, the year that World War II broke out. When the government establish the community of Yuendumu, Don and his family moved there and this is where Don attended school. He was initiated near Haast’s Bluff and then began working as a stockman and fencing contractor on various stations, including Hamilton Downs. He married the widowed Entalura Nangala and moved to Papunya where he started working in the communal kitchen.

Don has been painting since the beginning of the Aboriginal Art movement, commencing in Papunya during the 1970s. Entalura, Don’s wife, was one of the first females to begin painting during the late 1980s.

In 1986 Don won the Alice Art Prize. His very beautiful paintings talk about young males’ initiation ceremony. While many ceremonies are public, Male Initiation Ceremonies are secret and strangers, young women, non initiated boys and girls would be limited in attending the sacred ceremonies. The main categories of ceremonies are; education of their sacred laws and behavioural codes and to ensure the continuation of totemic species to live in harmony with the land. Aboriginal men perform the ceremonies at different times of the year. Each ceremony has to be organized, supervised and managed and the performance of each ceremony dependents the person's ownership, knowledge as well as status. A concentric circle represents a meeting place. Ceremonies involve songs, dances and body adornment