
Mervyn Street
Mangkaja Arts Resource AgencyMervyn Street is a Gooniyandi man. Gooniyandi is one of the two river groups from the country around Fitzroy Crossing. He was born at Louisa Downs Station. Mervyn speaks fluentGooniyandi as well as English. He is a father and grandfather and an important leader for art and culture inMuludja, Yiyili and Pull Out Springs communities. A long-time member and chair of Mangkaja and Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre (KALACC). Mervyn lives in Muludja, a community 45kms from Fitzroy Crossing. He has taken a leadership role politically, actively promoting the importance of retaining culture, protecting the Fitzroy River catchment and the many benefits for Indigenous communities to continue living in their remote homelands.
Mervyn started drawing when he was a young man after seeing a John Wayne cowboy movie that inspired him to draw out what he had just watched. His ability to depict what he sees from memory with drawing continually informs his work and is an accomplished author, illustrator carver, printmaker and painter.
He has authored a book entitled ‘KnowYour Granny’about his country and his language. He has also co-produced the book titled ‘Atthe River’ and illustrated ‘The Girl from The Great Sandy Desert’. Mervyn has used his artwork extensively in Muludja and Yiyili School where he teaches his traditional language.
Mervyn grew up on the stations and worked as a stockman for many years. Station life is a regular subject in his artworks.
“Early days old people didn’t know station animals, I am bringing this history and what we saw in my generation by telling these stories. Still we are learning pigs nanny goats but I had just come out of the bush and I had been living on bush food. I saw these animals for the first time and then I got to work with them. Old people used to spear them and get in trouble, they didn’t know.
“You may look at my work and think it’s good but it has a lot of meaning. The station stories and
early days are when everything changed. I paint about history to make a distinction between Dreamtime and modern history.”
Mervyn is referring the moment in time when contact occurred and saw the introduction of many things to his life and landscape.
Always looking to extend his art skills different mediums to tell his stories Mervyn has produced stop motion and sand animation films. He presented a public demonstration of his technique at DAAF workshops in 2018.
For Desert, River, Sea exhibition at AGWA 2019, Mervyn developed a new technique of carving into cowhide and has since been selected into the prestigious Telstra NATSIAA 2019 and Alice Art Prize 2020 with two more hides he has carved. Mervyn has already conducted two public workshops to share his specialized technique.
“I came up with this idea to shave and work into the hide like this and I’m very happy with the result you’ve never seen anything like this I reckon!”
PAINTING THEMES
Landscapes of Lambardi country Marrara River
Aboriginalstation workers building Louisa Downs Homestead (firsthomestead ever built)
Cattle stock routes between Broome and Wyndam and the Canning Stock Route Mustering and droving days in the 1940s and 1950s
Thefirst cattle trucks moving cattle from Fitzroy Crossing to Broome in the late 1950s
Campfire stories – old people sitting around the fire telling stories about the old days
Plants and animals
Changingseasons
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019 Mervyn Street –Stockman Days Short St Broome WA
22012 | Mervyn Street – My First Solo Exhibition | Mossenson Galleries, Subiaco |
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020 Sydney Contemporary 2020
2020 Ten Aboriginal Contemporary, Sydney
2020 Alice Art Prize Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs
2019 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Art Museum and Art Gallery of NT Awards (NATSIAA)
2018 Desert River Sea AGWA, Perth, WA
2018 Port Hedland Art Prize Finalist Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland,WA
2018 NATSIAA Museum and Art Gallery of NT
2017 Tarnarnthi – Abstracted Muster Adelaide Central Gallery, SA
2017 NATSIAA Museum and Art Gallery of NT
2017 “When the Sky Fell” (50thAnniversary 1967 PICA, Perth
Referendum, curated by Clothilde Bullen)
2016 Revealed Fremantle Art Centre, WA
2015 New Frontiers Linden Art Gallery, St Kilda, Vic
2015 Tanarnthi Art Fair – KAA Prints Tandanya, Adelaide, SA
2015 Mervyn Street and Mona Chuguna Rebecca Hossack Gallery, UK
2015 In the Saddle On the Wall Frankston Arts Centre, VIC
2014 In the Saddle On The Wall Broome, WA
2014 In the Saddle On The Wall Warringarri Arts, Kununurra, WA
2012 | Mangkaja Arts 21 Year Anniversary – Wirrinyiya ngaragngarag birra ngamoo ngamoo | Tandanya, Adelaide, SA |
2012 | Prints & Papers | Nomad Arts, Darwin & Canberra |
2011 | Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair | Darwin, NT |
2011 | Daisy Andrews & Mervyn Street
BankWest |
Mossenson Galleries, WA |
2011 | NATSIAA | |
2008 | Through Our Eyes
The Canning Stock Route |
Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery, WA |
2008 | Waterholes and Bush Tucker | Bridget McDonald Hampton, Gallery, VIC |
2003 | Ward’birra Gamba Warrag-goo | Cullity Gallery,
University of Western Australia |
2001 | Group Show | Australian Print Workshop Gallery, Melbourne, VIC |
1995 | Mangkaja: Old Mangkaja, New Prints | Australian Print Workshop Gallery, Melbourne, VIC |
1995 | Ward’birra Gamba Warrag-goo
[They Go Water For Work] |
Mangkaja Arts, Fitzroy Crossing, WA |
RESIDENCIES/ PROJECTS / PUBLICART
2017
2016 |
Fitzroy Crossing Dialysis Unit and Accommodation
Fitzroy Crossing Mural Project |
2012 | Fitzroy Crossing Police Station |
2010 | Fitzroy Crossing Swimming Pool |
2009 | Fitzroy Valley High School |
2008 | Fitzroy Valley Learning Centre – concrete paving design, perforated metal screen design, reception counter design |
2008 | Fitzroy Crossing Hospital – paintings on canvas |
2007 | Old Fitzroy Crossing High School – mosaic mural |
2007 | Tarunda Supermarket – mural |
2006 | Yiyili School – mural and panels |
2002-08 | Yiyili Community – teaching carving to young people |
POSITIONS HELD
2017-2018 Chairperson – Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency
2012-2015 Chairperson – Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre (KALACC)
2012-2014 | Chairperson – Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency Aboriginal Corporation |
2010 | Chairperson – Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency Aboriginal Corporation |
2006-09 | Cultural Liaison Officer – Canning Stock Route Project |
2004-09 | Chairperson – Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency Aboriginal Corporation |
AWARDS
1997 | Work on Paper Prize – National Aboriginal Art Award |
COLLECTIONS
New Museum
MAGNT
Art Gallery of Western Australia
British Museum, The United Kingdom
NationalMuseum ofAustralia
Art Gallery of New South Wales
National Gallery ofAustralia
National Gallery of Victoria
Fitzroy Crossing Hospital
Canning Stock Route Collection
CurtinUniversity Collection, Perth
Flinders UniversityArt Museum,Adelaide
Queensland University ofTechnology
PUBLICATIONS
2019 Desert River Sea Portraits of the Kimberleys, UWAP Publishing
2017 Tarnanthi
2015 The Girl from the Great Sandy Desert, Magabala Books
2009 | FORM and the National Museum of Australia
Canning Stock Route Project: Ngurra Kuju Walyja [One Country One People] |
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2009 | Yiyili Aboriginal Community Art Project
At the River |
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2007 | FORM and the National Museum of Australia
The Canning Stock Route Project |
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2003 | Exhibition Catalogue:
Cullity Gallery UWA Perth / Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency Martuwarra and Jila [River and Desert] |
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2001 | Yiyili Aboriginal Community
Know Your Granny |
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2001 | Art Gallery of Western Australia
Indigenous Art |
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1995 | Exhibition catalogue: Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency
Mangkaja: Old Mangkaja, New Prints |
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1995 | Exhibition catalogue: Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency
Ward’birra Gamba Warrag-goo [They Go Water For Work] |
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