Patrick Mung Mung Gija, b. 1944

Patrick Mung Mung was born at Yunurrel (Spring Creek) in 1944 and, like a number of Indigenous artists from the area, he worked as a stockman for many years on stations in the East Kimberley. He started painting in 1991 and was instrumental in establishing the artist and community owned art centre at Warmun in 1998.

He is now a senior artist at Warmun Art Centre and an elder law and culture man in the Warmun community.

Like his late father, George Mung Mung, Patrick is a strong crosscultural communicator. Mung Mung's work is influenced by the previous generation of Warmun artists, which include Rover Thomas and Paddy Jaminji - in its raw directness and composition. Mung Mung was born at Spring Creek and worked as a stockman for many years on Texas Downs Station and nearby stations in the East Kimberley. He was the last worker to leave Texas Downs when it closed down in the 1970s. In 1991 following his father's death, it fell to Mung Mung to accompany his father’s carving 'Mary of Warmun' to Canberra for the exhibition 'Aboriginal Art and Spirituality' at the High Court of Australia. This occasion marked the beginning of a journey for Mung Mung, which was to see him take on his father’s role of senior artist, law and culture man. Patrick Mung Mung started painting in 1991, and was instrumental in establishing the artist-and-community-owned art centre at Warmun in 1998.

His knowledge of his country and his cultural memory of family are powerful influences on his art. Painting on canvas with a palette of soft and hard natural pigments that he extracts locally, he depicts the country of his birthplace (Yunurrel), his father’s country (Jarlarlu), Ngarranggarni (Dreaming) stories from Texas Downs Station country, and aerial maps of Ngarrgoorroon country, which is characterised by hilly terrain and waterholes.

Patrick Mung Mung often presents his narratives as landscapes in colour blocks of varying size that are linked by white dotted lines that simultaneously join and separate the composition, as well as providing movement across the canvas.