Amanda White (b. 1978)

Born in Midland in 1978, Amanda (Mandy) White is an award-winning Aboriginal artist of Yamatji heritage. She was raised in Guildford, Western Australia and continues to live in the Perth foothills.
Mandy’s art career began in her 30’s when she started attending art classes at DADAA Midland. Over the subsequent decade Mandy has become a passionate, award- winning artist and a strong role model for artists with disability. She was the overall winner of the prestigious contemporary Joondalup Invitational Art Prize in 2021.

Mandy has won several awards with As We Are and the Autism Association, she has had 6 original works acquired by the City of Stirling, the Art Gallery of WA has acquired a sculpture and 2 works on canvas and she received a High Commended Award at the 2022 Belmont Art Prize, with the work being acquired by the City.
Other career highlights include a public art commission of 3 sculptures outside Midland Gate Shopping Centre, 3 sculptures displayed at Cottesloe Sculptures by the Sea 2021, a sell-out showing at Revealed in 2021 and a Fremantle Artsource residency culminating in the Deep Winter exhibition as a part of Fremantle Festival 2021.

Mandy’s works are alive with energy - in their making, in their line-work and embedded in the spirit stories told in each swirling encounter. Experimental and free in her approach, she enjoys working across a variety of materials and artforms. She is a natural colourist and her line work is full of confidence, gesture and emotion. Mandy’s works, like the creatures within them, are cheeky and mischievous. Line, colour and texture dances and plays, intertwined by a freedom of spirit that is her own.

Ngamaru Bidu (b. 1949)

Ngamaru was born at Martilirri in 1949 (Well 22 on the Canning Stock Route), the eldest of four siblings. Her mother came from the area around Wikirri and her father from Pitu. As a child Ngamaru lived a traditional
lifestyle, and walked around with her family, moving from water source to water source dependent on the seasonal rain cycles.
When Ngamaru was a teenager, her family and their travelling companions were tracked by Native Patrol Officers and staff from the Jigalong Mission. The group was persuaded to move to Jigalong Mission, where they re- joined the many family members that had already moved in from the desert. At the mission, Ngamaru’s sister and some of the Biljabu family were sent to school, but Ngamaru went to work making bread.
From Jigalong Ngamaru moved to Strelley Community, where she met her husband, Joshua Booth. Together with their children they later moved to Warralong and then Punmu Aboriginal Communitis before settling in Parnngurr Aboriginal community (Cotton Creek), where Ngamaru continues to live today.

Ngamaru has painted with Martumili since its inception in 2006. Ngamaru is known for the beautifully complex compositional structures and intricate patterning in her work, through which she very often explores the practice of fire burning in her Country and its related Martu cyclical seasonal changes. Ngamaru’s work has been exhibited in galleries internationally and throughout Australia and acquired by the National Museum of Australia. She was selected in 2019 for the prestigious John Stringer Art Prize exhibition.

Anya Judith Samson (b. 1988)

Judith is the granddaughter of Dadda Samson (dec.) and Yanjimi (Peter) Rowlands (dec.), both of whom were highly regarded Martumili artists. She was born in Port Hedland and has lived most of her life in Jigalong. Judith was raised by her grandparents, as her parents passed away when she was very young. As Judith describes, she was taught to paint by her grandmother Dadda, who passed stories to her for painting. Judith also spent much time travelling with Dadda to her country around the Puntawarri and the Rabbit Proof Fence areas, both subject of many of her paintings.

Judith has exhibited in most Martumili Artists' exhibitions in recent years. Her work has been acquired by the Art Gallery of Queensland (GOMA) and the National Museum of Australia. Anya strikingly combines vibrant, unrestrained palettes with her loose, bold, style, and incorporation of geometric walka (iconographic forms that describe the people, animals and their tracks, geographic formations and the location of water) to represent her and Dadda's Country surrounding Puntawarri, Jigalong and the Rabbit Proof Fence.

Isaac Cheryl (b. 1955)

Isaac Cherel was a Gooniyandi Man, from the Fitzroy Valley river country. Isaac grew up on Old Station in Fossil Downs where his parents lived and worked in the Gooniyandi language group country along the Fitzroy and Margaret Rivers of the Kimberley. Isaac’s mother Elsie remarried and her second husband Butcher Cherel, renowned Mangkaja painter, raised Isaac as his own son. Isaac was a station worker and a cowboy as a young man, working stock across the Kimberley. He lived in Muludja and was inspired by his step-father Butcher to take up painting. He lived near the river and paints at home, visiting Mangkaja to collect his materials each week. Isaac painted his country, particularly the flora and fauna from the river and flood areas. His focus remained on traditional practices and belief systems, painting symbols that relate to men’s law practices and to the spirits of his country, particularly the mamu or joowarri, which are little people with big ears that live in the hills.