Beerbee Mungnari

The son of Ngarinman people, Beerbee ( pronounced Birribee) was born on Waterloo cattle station, on the Northern Territory side of the border with Western Australia, and as his father did before him, spent many years as a ringer, (cowboy) on nearby Rosewood and Kildurk Stations, taking part in many two-week cattle drives from the Territory, via the old Ord River Stock Route, to the slaughtering facility at the port of Wyndham, where the meat was processed for the hamburger market in America. When the Ord was dammed in 1966, most of the country that Beerbee knew and loved from those drives, became the bottom of Lake Argyle, the largest body of water within Australia. These lost places feature in many of his works.
So impressed was he with his young stockman, that Jack Kilfoyle, the legendary owner of Rosewood, made provision for the family trust company to make investments on Beerbee’s behalf, and to this day he receives regular small dividends resulting from that arrangement.
In the last years before the Aboriginal station hand’s pay dispute and subsequent expulsion of the people from their traditional lands, Beerbee lived and worked on Texas Downs cattle station, on the south-western side of Lake Argyle, and west of the border.
Frog Hollow, a tiny community to the south of Texas Downs, is where Beerbee lives with his large family, with several children and grandchildren attending school there.
Subject & Themes
The artist’s country in the East Kimberley and country south of Kununurra, prior to the formation of the Argyle Dam.

Subjects & Themes
Droving stories, station life
Collections
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth
Individual Exhibitions
2004 Alison Kelly Gallery, Melbourne
Group Exhibitions
2009 The Youngest One, Chapman Gallery, Canberra
2008 Warmun at Ten: A Decade of Warmun Art, Hogarth Gallery, Sydne
2008 New Voices in Gija Art, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2008 Mungowum Ngarraknaari Yaarun (Strong Stories, Strong Culture), Short St. Gallery, Broome
2007 Dog Dreamings, Seva Frangos Art, Perth
2006 Gentlemen of Warmun, Seva Frangos Art, Perth
2006 Bungle Bungles, Short St. Gallery, Broome
2006 Warmun Art Centre Presents, Mary Place Gallery, Sydney
2005 Waterhole Country, Short St. Gallery, Broome
2005 Affordable Art Show, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne
2005 Warmun Group Show, Framed Gallery, Darwin
2005 London Affordable Art Show, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne
2004 Tibet meets Warmun, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle,
2004 Big Country Show’, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs
2003 Three Old Men, Seva Frangos Art, Span Gallery, Melbourne
2002 Warmun Country, Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
2002 New Works from Warmun, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2002 Recent Works from Warmun, Framed Gallery, Darwin
2002 Munumburra: Wise Men of Warmun, Artplace, Perth
2001 Ochre Show, Short St. Gallery, Broome
2001 Short on Size, Short St. Gallery, Broome