Albert Namatjira

Who was Albert Namatjira?

Albert Namatjira, born Elea Namatjira, was a Western Aranda-speaking Aboriginal artist from the western MacDonnell Ranges in Australia. As one of the most prominent Aboriginal artist of the time, he was a pioneer of contemporary Indigenous Australian art.

His watercolour Australian outback desert landscapes were of the Hermannsburg School of Aboriginal art. With their richly detailed watercolour depictions, the predominantly western style departed from the highly symbolic style of traditional Aboriginal art whilst drawing upon person experience. For his work, he was awarded the Queen's Coronation Medal in 1953.

Namatjira is also symbolic of the Australian Indigenous rights movement and the bridging of Australian cultures, being the first Northern Territory Aboriginal person to be freed from the restrictions of legislation that made Aborigines wards of the State, becoming in 1957 the first Aboriginal person to be granted Australian citizenship, as such the first entitled to vote, build a house or buy alcohol.