Churchill Cann

Warmun Art Centre, Western Australia (WAC Catalogue number 201/09)

American Private Collection

Cally Dupe, Stockman Churchill claims WA Indigenous Art Award, The Kimberly Echo, August 31, 2013

Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australian Indigenous Art Award, 2013, (Winner; Best Western Australian Artwork)

A Warmun man who paints “what his insides tell him” has won the Western Australian section of the nation’s richest indigenous art prize. Churchill Cann, who often paints at Warmun Art Centre, was awarded the $10,000 prize in the 2013 Indigenous Art Awards. Born and bred on Texas Downs station, east of Warmun, he worked as a stockman for most of his life, performing labour-intensive work. Art isn’t his only additional venture, he also serves as a medicine man for the Gija language group — a role he inherited from his father. Cann’s cheeky and individual spirit pervades his most recent body of work, flaunting a more contemporary style of indigenous art. Embracing visual language, his paintings move across time and place to combine Ngarranggami (dreaming) with his own personal experiences. Referring to his most recent work, he spoke of a feeling where he knows what to paint. “In this work here, I found my liyann — that feeling you get in the guts,” he said. His upcoming solo show, opening in May, is self-titled Wariwoony Joolany - meaning Wild Dog in Gija. The overall winner was Queensland artist Brian Robinson, who was awarded $50,000. The Indigenous Art Prize enables the country to view unique work from indigenous folk from right around Australia. Cann was one of 16 chosen to enter the awards. Culture and the Arts Minister John Day said long-standing awards were respected, and Churchill’s artwork was well-deserving of a prize. “The judges thought Churchill Cann’s use of colour and charcoal in his paintings was outstanding,” he said. (Cally Dupe, ibid)

“My old people used to tell me to paint. But I’d stop. Nah. Too hard.” “Keep going – you’ll find your liyan (that good feeling in the guts),” they’d say. “But when you start – you gotta finish…In this work, here (now), I found my liyan.” – Churchill Cann, Warmun Art Centre, 2012

Churchill Cann (1944 – 2016) painted for many years, influenced by the first generation of artists that established the Warmun contemporary art movement. His precise textures, lucid compositions of country, haunting mystery and the gravity of marginalized histories are marks of confidence and surety.

Mr. Cann worked as a stockman from an early age on Texas Downs cattle station, which lies to the east of Warmun. He moved around his own country and also worked at Alice Downs, Mabel Downs Spring Creek and Lissadell stations. Riding in the bush was a way of being in the country and absorbing knowledge from his elders while working in a white man’s world caring for cattle. Mr. Cann was knowledgeable about traditional healing practices, expertise he inherited from his father. These life experiences informed his work: “I’m doing them hill where we bin travelling. I’m thinking about what them hills really look like. I just follow them hills where I bin walk.”

In a 2012 interview, Mr. Cann was asked how he first started painting. His initial response led him to childhood, when he’d watch his uncle and grandfather make things. Of his uncle, Cann said, ‘Whatever broke, he’d renew ‘em.’ The act of painting is akin to the act (and memory) of making things – of heating horse shoes over a fire, bashing them into shape with a rock, working with sugarbag wax, straightening bamboo spears and preparing kangaroo sinew.

Mr. Cann was a very serious and focused practitioner at work, yet his character is playful to the bone. He entitled a 2013 solo show at William Mora Galleries Joolany Wariwoony – Cheeky Dog. This name is based on his Dreaming the Jarrinyin; a kind of devil dog described by Mr. Cann as having ‘a long neck like a giraffe’. He was the winner of the 2013 WA Indigenous Artist Award at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

An extended version of this text appears as an essay by Alana Hunt in the catalogue of the 2013 Western Australian Indigenous Art Awards.

https://warmunart.com.au/art/artists/senior/churchill-cann/

This painting is sold with the WAC Catalogue number 201/09