Winmati Roberts Australian, Pitjantjatjara, b. 1957

Winmati Roberts is descended from a line of renowned artists from the Spinifex, Ngaanyatjarra and Pitjantjatjara border region of Western Australia and South Australia. Winmati was born near Ernabella Mission at the Umuwa rock hole in the late 1950’s. His mother, the late Wingu Tingima, was one of the best known and respected painters of the region. She was born at a rock hole named Nyuman, in the northern portion of the Spinifex. Winmati’s father, the late Lima Tingima, was an inspirational figure in Winmati’s life passing on his great knowledge of the country and the Law to his son. Around the time of Winmati’ s birth his uncle, Lawrence Pennington and other family members still living a traditional nomadic life in the Spinifex Lands were being contacted for the first time as patrol officers clearing the way for the Maralinga atomic tests took people west into the mission at Cundeelee

As a young man Winmati worked on the bore program, a project supporting Anangu’s desire to ‘return to country’ by sinking bores and building windmills in traditional homelands throughout the northern part of South Australia. He married and helped to establish the community of Nyapari where he lived for many years. His second and third wives live in Tjuntjuntjara and for the past ten years he has resided there.

Winmati paints the Wati Kutjara Tjukurpa of Pukara, a story depicting two snakes, a father and son who are travelling across country during ceremonial time. The Wati Kutjara story is one of the most important and wide-ranging stories in Spinifex country. Although much of the specific detail is dangerous and secret the general actions and directions of the father and son are well known and understood to have been essential to the formation and activation of much of the country.