Rockholes near the Olgas - Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri

Bill Whiskey did not begin painting on canvas until the last four years of his life at 84 years of age, by which time he was widely renowned as a powerful healer and keeper of sacred knowledge. His paintings, the first to depict the major Cockatoo Dreaming story and the creation of important sites throughout the country of his birth (Pirupa Alka near the Olgas - Kata Tjuta and Ayers Rock - Uluru), are imbued with authority and steeped in traditional knowledge.

During the battle between the Cockatoo and the Crow, white feathers were scattered about and the landscape became indented by the entangled combatants crashing to the ground repeatedly. Subterranean streams filled these impressions with water and a circular amphitheatre was created by the sweep of wings. Today, a large, glowing white rock signifies the fallen cockatoo, still sipping the life-giving water from the sacred pools.

In Whiskey's emblematic works, blues, yellows, and reds, are tempered by cockatoo-white, representing the wildflowers that grow in profusion after rain. In keeping with the depiction of Dreaming stories throughout the Western Desert, the mythic and numinous is inherent within the sacred geography.