Revered Aboriginal elder, artist and Pitjantjatjara man Kunmanara ‘Mumu Mike’ Williams sadly passed away late last year. His prolific work poured out of the Mimili Maku Arts Centre he helped found in the APY lands in South Australia.
Renowned for subversive messaging scrawled on Australia Post bags, as inspired by a pile left at Mimili Maku, he challenged the political status quo and treatment of Aboriginal Australians, with creating more agency for Anangu artists at the heart of his work. He was a tireless activist who fought long and hard in the APY Land Rights movement that ultimately led to the signing of the Pitjantjatjara Land Rights Act 1981.
You might have caught his most recent masterpiece Kamantaku Tjukurpa wiya (The Government Doesn’t have Tjukurpa) at the MCA as part of the National. The Art Gallery of NSW hosts his final protest piece, which lights the way with his words “Kulilaya munuya nintiriwa” (Listen and learn from us).
A fitting tribute to his remarkable life and work, The Mimili Maku Arts collective stepped in to complete it, following the vision he laid out and led by his beloved widow Tuppy Ngintja Goodwin (Pitjantjatjara, Arrernte) and best friend and Sammy Dodd (Pitjantjatjara).
