Finalist – 2026 Wynne Prize
Carol Puruntatameri
Born: 1959
Language: Tiwi
Region: Yapalika, Melville Island, NT
Art Centre: Munupi Arts & Crafts
Presented in conjunction with Munupi Arts & Crafts, Carol Puruntatameri is featured in Art Leven’s Sydney Contemporary 2026 presentation at Booth C10. A Tiwi artist from Melville Island, her practice brings the ceremonial stories and cultural knowledge of the Tiwi Islands into a powerful contemporary visual language.
Growing up within a family deeply immersed in ceremony and art, Puruntatameri’s understanding of Tiwi painting and cultural practice was shaped from an early age by her family and the ceremonial life of her community.
Her uncle, respected artist and senior cultural figure Justin Puruntatameri, was an important influence, teaching Carol and other members of the family at Munupi Arts. Her father also painted Pukumani poles and participated in Kulama ceremonies, and Carol remembers being involved in ceremony from childhood, gathering materials and watching her elders enact traditions that had been passed through generations.
These experiences remain fundamental to her practice today. Working predominantly with natural ochres, Puruntatameri draws upon Tiwi ancestral stories, ceremony and customary designs while developing a visual language that is distinctly her own. Across bark, canvas and found objects, intricate lines and fields of pattern create surfaces that are both highly contemporary and grounded in generations of Tiwi cultural knowledge.
Yipali and Purrukupali
Central to Puruntatameri’s recent work is the story of Yipali and Purrukupali, one of the most significant creation stories of the Tiwi people.
The story explains the origins of death and the beginning of the Pukumani mourning ceremony. Purrukupali’s son, Jinani, died after being left beneath the hot sun while his mother, Bima, met with her lover Tapara. Overcome by grief, Purrukupali refused Tapara’s attempts to restore Jinani to life, declaring that death would thereafter come to all Tiwi people.
The story established the first Pukumani ceremony and continues to underpin important aspects of Tiwi ceremonial and cultural life. It is a story not simply about death, but about kinship, responsibility, mourning and the laws through which relationships between the living, ancestors and Country are maintained.
