Wenten Rubuntja; Aboriginal painter and activist

[Hyfler/Rosner]

From The Independent ~
Published: 13 August 2005

Wenten Rubuntja was one of the leading figures of the
Aboriginal cultural and political world during the last 30
years. He achieved an international reputation as a painter,
and as a political activist was a key figure in the
establishment of the Aboriginal land rights movement in
central Australia. Throughout his life he worked with great
energy, humour and imagination to effect reconciliation
between Australia's Aboriginal and the non-Aboriginal
communities.

Born around 1923 at Burt Creek, Northern Territory, some 35
miles north of Alice Springs, Wenten Rubuntja was raised in
the harsh world of the central Australian fringe camps,
excluded from the "white" world of Alice Springs but cut off
from the fully nomadic life of his Arrernte forebears. His
grandparents belonged to the generation that could recall
the first coming of European settlers to central Australia
in the 1860s. Since then things had developed quickly. At
the time of his birth, his parents were working for rations
in and around Alice Springs. There were, however, regular
hunting expeditions. The young Wenten was taken to his
father's traditional country at Mount Hay, where he was
entrusted with the Fire Dreaming story that was part of his
paternal cultural heritage.

There was much missionary activity around the camps, and
Wenten - according to his own account - was baptised by both
the Catholics and the Lutherans, and possibly by several
other denominations as well. The missionary-churches' habit
of offering ice-lollies along with the baptismal rite seems
to have encouraged such enthusiasm. Although Wenten briefly
attended mission schools, he never learned to read or write.
The outlines of the Christian story and the Christian
message, however, remained important to him, though he
adapted both to the traditional Arrernte world-view. (He
would refer to Bethlehem as "Jesus's traditional country".)

With the coming of the Second World War, Wenten Rubuntja
found work hunting kangaroos to provide meat for the
Australian troops. He later did many of the menial
cattle-station jobs open to Aboriginals. He spent time
working as a stockman, a brick-maker, a gardener, a butcher
and a cook.

In the 1950s he also began painting, inspired by his
father's cousin, the great Albert Namatjira, founder of the
distinctive - and naturalistic - Aranda watercolour style.
His accomplished depictions of the dramatic desert and gorge
landscape around Alice Springs soon found buyers.

With the emergence of the dot-and-circle painting movement
at Papunya in the 1970s, Rubuntja also began to work in this
style. One of his pictures hangs in Australia's Parliament
House in Canberra, another was presented to Pope John Paul
II on his visit to Alice Springs in 1986.

Rubuntja considered both modes of painting equally valid in
expressing his sense of a sacred connection with the land.
"Doesn't matter what sort of painting we do in this
country," he remarked, "it still belongs to the people, all
the people. This is worship, work, culture. It's all
Dreaming."

Rubuntja's gifts at reconciling different visions also found
scope in the political sphere. With the emergence of the
Aboriginal land rights movement in the 1970s, he took a
leading role. In 1976 he led a march of over a thousand
Aboriginal people through Alice Springs demanding the
passage of the Land Rights Act proposed by Malcolm Fraser's
Liberal government. He then embarked on a nationwide
speaking tour to keep up the pressure.

He served as chairman of the Central Land Council in
1976-1980 and 1985-88, bringing both his humour and his deep
local knowledge to bear on proceedings. He was instrumental
in protecting numerous sacred sites in and around Alice
Springs. And it was in part due to his efforts that, in
2000, the Federal Court of Australia made its groundbreaking
ruling, recognising Arrernte native title over large areas
of greater Alice Springs. (It was the first time that
Aboriginals had been given title over municipal land.)

In all his negotiations Rubuntja displayed a remarkable
ability to integrate indigenous and non-indigenous concepts
and to achieve satisfactory resolutions. He believed that
white and black law were not incompatible, but had both to
be properly understood by all parties. It was a vision that
he also brought to his time on the Council of Aboriginal
Reconciliation in 1991 and 1995. He was made a member of the
Order of Australia in 1995.

Wenton Rubuntja was a distinctive and stylish figure in
Alice Springs with his wide-brimmed cowboy hat and fine
white beard. He had married his wife, Cynthia Perrurle, in
the mid 1950s, and together they presided over a large
family of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
(Their son Mervyn was judged the "best baby" in a 1959
national competition sponsored by Heinz baby food.) In 2002,
together with Jenny Green, Rubuntja published his
autobiography, The Town Grew Up Dancing.

Rebecca Hossack

Wenten Rubuntja, artist and political activist: born Burt
Creek, Northern Territory c 1923; married Cynthia Perrurle;
died Alice Springs, Northern Territory 3 July 2005.