Paddy Japaljarri Stewart

Who is Paddy Japaljarri Stewart?

Paddy Japaljarri Stewart, is an Australian Aboriginal artist from Mungapunju, south of Yuendumu. He is chairman of the Warlukurlangu Artists Committee.

Stewart was one of the artists who contributed to the Honey Ant Dreaming mural on the Papunya school wall in 1971 - the very genesis of the modern Aboriginal art movement.

The people of Yuendumu in the early 1980s began transferring their traditional ochre ground paintings to canvas, and then to the doors. In 1983, Stewart along with four other artist painted thirty of the Yuendumu Schooldoors with Dreaming designs, negotiating the content with other Warlpiri men and women who also collectively owned the designs. Twenty-seven Dreamings were represented on the Doors, referring to more than two hundred sites in Warlpiri and Anmatyerre territory.

The painted doors were also intended to remind the Yuendumu schoolchildren of a web of sites and obligations extending across their country. The Doors remained at Yuendumu, resisting erasure for twelve years despite the desert wind and sun, and robust treatment from Warlpiri schoolchildren.

The entire series of Yuendumu Doors was acquired by the South Australian Museum in 1995 and then restored. Twelve of the best doors were selected for a traveling exhibition that toured Australia for three years; the Yuendumu Doors are now at the South Australian Museum.