Paddy Fordham (Wainburranga)

Paddy Fordham grew up in Maningrida where as a young boy he worked in nearby cattleyards. At the age of thirteen he moved to Maranboy Station where he spent the next twenty years working as a stockman. Paddy learnt his traditional culture and customs from his father and four uncles and remembers hunting kangaroos and goannas, being taken to secret locations and being told many Dreamtime stories.

As a young boy Paddy Forham was shown how to paint by his father but he did not begin to paint seriously until the early 1970’s. Paddy was also instrumental in helping to establish ‘Mimi Aboriginal Arts and Crafts’, the regional art centre which continues to service Aboriginal artists throughout the Greater Katherine Region.

Fordham witnessed the beginnings of the Aboriginal struggle for equal rights, the homelands movement and land rights, and has explored all of these themes in his paintings and stories, thus playing a major role in revealing history from a unique, traditional Aboriginal perspective. Fordham’s thematic works include ‘Too Many Captain Cooks’, ‘The Coming of the Welfare System’, ‘World War Two Supply Ships’ and many others which are held in Australia’s major State and National Galleries.

Paddy also depicts creation ancestors responsible for Rembarrnga culture and land. He has worked on paper, bark and canvas as well as making distinctive spirit figure sculptures.

Paddy Fordham is recognised as a story-teller, bark painter, sculptor, dancer, singer and musician. He was one of the artists to contribute several burial poles, to the ‘Aboriginal Memorial’ installation made from 200 painted hollow logs, symbolising 200 years of white occupation of Australia, which was part of the 1988 Biennale of Sydney. This installation has since been exhibited overseas including
in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg and is on permanent display in the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.
Subject & Themes
Bangjalngalan Spirits, In the Beginning narratives, Gurrdunyu, the Moon Man, Golomono, the Crocodile Man. Kollo Kollo, The Lefthanded Man and Waditj, the Rock Man.
Collections
Artbank, Sydney.
Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia.
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide.
Museum of Victoria, Melbourne.
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour, Sydney.
The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth.
Group Exhibitions
1984 Aboriginal Art, an Exhibition Presented by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra.
1985 The Second National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
1987 The Fourth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
1989 A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, Westpac Gallery, Melbourne
1989 Design Warehouse Sydney [through Lauraine Diggins Fine Art].
1989 Aboriginal Art: The Continuing Tradition, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
1989 The Sixth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
1990 Spirit in Land, Bark Paintings from Arnhem Land, National Gallery of Victoria.
1990 Tagari Lia: My Family, Contemporary Aboriginal Art 1990 – from Australia, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, UK.
1990 Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Harvard University, University of Minnesota, Lake Oswego Center for the Arts, USA.
1991 Flash Pictures, National Gallery of Australia.
1991 Australian Perspecta, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
1991 The Eighth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
1992 Tyerabarrbowaryaou, I shall never become a whiteman, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.
1992 The Ninth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
1992-1993 New Tracks Old Land: An Exhibition of Contemporary Prints from Aboriginal Australia, touring USA and Australia.
1993 The Tenth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
1993 Australian Heritage Commission National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibition, Old Parliament House, Canberra.
1993/4 ARATJARA, Art of the First Australians, Touring: Kunstammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf; Hayward Gallery, London; Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark. 1994 Tyerabarrbowaryaou 2, I shall never become a whiteman, 5th Havana Biennial, Cuba, & Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.
1994 Malu Urul, National Maritime Museum, Sydney.
1994 Art of the Rainbow Snake, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
1998 NATSI Art Award MAGNT Darwin.
Bibliography
Aboriginal Arts Management Association, 1990, Contemporary Aboriginal Art 1990 – from Australia (presented by the Aboriginal Arts Committee, Australia Council and Third Eye Centre, Glasgow), exhib. cat., Redfern, New South Wales. (C)
Caruana, W., 1987, Australian Aboriginal Art, a Souvenir Book of Aboriginal Art in the Australian National Gallery, Australian National Gallery, Parkes, Australian Capital Territory. (C)
Caruana, W., 1987, Australian Aboriginal Art, a Souvenir Book of Aboriginal Art in the Australian National Gallery, Australian National Gallery, Parkes, Australian Capital Territory. (C)
Caruana, W., 1993, Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson, London. (C)
Diggins, L. (ed.), 1989, A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, exhib. cat., Malakoff Fine Art Press, North Caulfield, Victoria.
Isaacs, J., 1992, ‘A Bitter pill for the white man (woman), Tyerabarrbowaryaou at the Museum of Contemporary Art,’ Art Monthly Australia 49, 6-7. (C)
1993, Aratjara, Art of the First Australians: Traditional and Contemporary Works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Artists, exhib. cat. (conceived and designed by Bernard Luthi in collaboration with Gary Lee), Dumont, Buchverlag, Koln. (C)
1992, Tyerabarrbowaryaou I Shall Never Become a Whiteman, exhib. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. (C)
Langton, M., 1992-93 ‘The two women looked back over their shoulders & lamented leaving their country: detached comment (recent urban) & symbolic narrative (traditional),’ Aboriginal Art in the Public Eye, Art Monthly Australia Supplement, 7-9. (C)
McCulloch, S. Contemporary Aboriginal Art: A guide to the rebirth of an ancient culture Allen & Unwin 1999
Mundine, D., 1992, ‘If My Ancestors Could See Me Now.’ In 1992, Tyerabarrbowaryaou I Shall Never Become a Whiteman, exhib. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. (C)
Ryan, J., 1990, Spirit in Land, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Wallace, D., Desmond, M., Caruana, W., 1991, Flash Pictures, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
1990, Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, exhib. cat., Heytesbury Holdings Ltd., Perth.
1991, Australian Perspecta, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
1994, Tyerabarrbowaryaou 2 I Shall Never Become a Whiteman, exhib. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.
Films
Too Many Captain Cooks (d: Penny McDonald) 1988. (C)