"I was born at Tapu in the Great Sandy desert around 1929. Tapu is my father's country and Kurtal is my mother's country. My parents died when I was a baby. I grew up at Wayampajarti and that is my country now...
... I first started painting at Karrayili Adult Education Centre in the early eighties.
We told our stories through painting and learned to speak to kartiya [European person]. I also did painting at Bayulu community near Fitzroy Crossing. That's how I told my story to kartiya. We worked on paper then, not canvas or board.
When I paint, I think about my country, and where I have been travelling across that country. I paint from here (points to head - thinking about country) and here (points to breasts, collarbone and shoulder blades - which is a reference to body painting). I think about my people, the old people and what they told me and jumangkarni [Dreamtime].
When I paint, I am thinking about law from a long time ago. I like painting, it's good. I get pamarr [word for rock, stone money] for it. I can buy my food, tyres and fix my car. I give some money to my family and I keeр some for myself.
Nobody taught me how to paint, I put down my own ideas. I saw these places for myself, I went there with the old people. I paint jilji [sand hills], jumu [soak water], jila [permanent waterhole], jiwari [rock hole], pamarr [hills and rock country], I think about mangarri [vegetable food] and kuyu [game] from my country and when I was there.”
Wakartu Cory Surprise, 2009
Date of birth1929Place of birth / nationalityBorn at Tapu, Great Sandy Desert, Western AustraliaDate of death2011Place activeFitzroy Crossing, Western AustraliaLanguage group
