Thomas Munkanome (Cockatoo Man) is much loved for his playful ironwood carvings depicting cockatoos. Thomas works in small and large scale and is represented in major institutions and private collections both in Australia and overseas. As with most Tiwi artists, Thomas developed his art under the watchful eye of 'the old men' - experienced Tiwi carvers from Nguiu on Bathurst Island. His work in the Broken Hill Living Desert Sculpture Park, 'Tomasina', is a sculpture of a Water Bird, neck stretched upward catching a fish,and is named after Thomas' daughter, born during a symposium there. Thomas returned to Bathurst Island but sadly the child died several weeks later Viral meningitis. The unfinished sculpture may be viewed as a metaphor for the child's brief life.
Tiwi Design is a successful Indigenous art centre that has established a significant reputation within the Indigenous fine art market. Tiwi Design is renowned for the diversity of artworks produced by its artists including ochre paintings, carvings, screen-printed fabric and ceramics. This contemporary arts practice has a long history with its connections to Tiwi culture, body painting and ceremony through to the emergence of fabric printing and ceramics that signalled the beginnings of Tiwi Design in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
