Mervyn Street

Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency

Mervyn 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]

2009 Yiyili Aboriginal Community Art Project

At the River

2007 FORM and the National Museum of Australia

The Canning Stock Route Project

2003 Exhibition Catalogue:

Cullity Gallery UWA Perth / Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency

Martuwarra and Jila [River and Desert]

2001 Yiyili Aboriginal Community

Know Your Granny

2001 Art Gallery of Western Australia

Indigenous Art

1995 Exhibition catalogue: Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency

Mangkaja: Old Mangkaja, New Prints

1995 Exhibition catalogue: Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency

Ward’birra Gamba Warrag-goo [They Go Water For Work]