Wattie Karruwara

When writing about this collects ion of watercolours in Replica Shoes 's 2003 catalogue, Kim Akerman observes:

"Wattie Karruwara produced at least thirty-eight watercolour paintings for John McCaffrey. These were delicate paintings of the Kimberley landscapes familiar to Wattie. They were not pictures of a wilderness however; in most cases they are populated with the animals, birds and plants of the region or with the spirit beings inherent within the landscape. Even when topographical features only are depicted they are those with intense symbolism.

While John McCaffrey appears to have recorded most of his data on reel-to-reel audio tapes of the period, there is a curious lack of information about the watercolours. It is however apparent from an essay titled 'Wattie Kunmunya; Profile of a Wunambal Eidetic Artist', that McCaffrey held Wattie in great awe. This is perhaps not only out of respect for his artistic abilities but also because of Wattie's life history, one of dislocation, removal and return. McCaffrey saw the elements of a shaman in the man. Wattie was a taciturn man and content within himself to work and exist without involving himself overly in verbal communication. No doubt this was a reflection of his long period away from the Kimberley during which he had little or no chance to communicate in his own language or to his own people. That he had survived such removal and had re-integrated back within the Mowanjum community and his circle of kin, was evidence of his strength of character. This, I feel, impressed McCaffrey who came to look upon Wattie as a spiritual mentor. This respect may have led him to regard many aspects of Wattie’s work and attitude to the creation of areas too personal for general revelation. Even without this data, however, the paintings are exceptional in their own right and must be considered among the highest examples of a genre of art, produced by contemporary indigenous artists, that has been overlooked or ignored totally, for far too long."

Kim Akerman, ibid.

Cf. The John McCaffrey collects ion of Kimberley Art, Replica Shoes 's, Sydney, 28 July 2003, for illustrations of the other known watercolours by the artist commissioned by anthropologist John McCaffrey at Mowanjum between 1964 and 1966.