aboriginal artist: Patrick Smith Tjapaltjarri

Patrick’s father’s country is Tanami Downs and his mother’s is Kanningarra on the Canning Stock Route. His father worked as a gardener at Sturt Creek Station where Patrick was born. This is where he went through law with snake dreaming and where he started a long life of stock work: droving, mustering and branding. He travelled as far as Alice Springs droving cattle. Patrick helped with the building of the old mission and later moved to Balgo where his children could go to school.

Patrick is knowledgeable in tracking, hunting, fishing, bush medicine and traditional law. Patrick and his wife Marie Mudgedell currently live in Balgo as active painters, cultural elders and custodians and growing up a large family.

EXHIBITIONS

2010 Balgo Prints, Northern Editions, Darwin
2008 The Power of Observation,, Gondwana, Alice Springs
2006 Balgo 2006, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne