Word: hermannsburg
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Until 1936, Albert Namatjira, a husky black member of the Arunta tribe in the remote bush country of central Australia, was a camel driver. He also did odd jobs for the Lutheran mission at tiny (pop. 242) Hermannsburg, 1,300 miles northwest of Sydney. The missionaries paid him in clothes and rations of European food, with which Albert supplemented the native "bush tucker" of kangaroo meat, honey ants and fat grubs...
Today, 51-year-old Albert Namatjira is one of Australia's most popular and successful artists. His bright, pleasant watercolors of the rugged scenery around Hermannsburg sell in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaïde and Brisbane for as much as $170, and last year he earned about $5,000 from the products of his brush...
Fast Learner. Namatjira's rise started when two Melbourne artists, Rex Battarbee and John Gardner, came to the bush on a painting trip and showed some of their watercolors to the Hermannsburg aborigines. Albert was fascinated. He brooded about the white man's wondrous colors, and eventually made a proposition: he would serve Battarbee as camel boy if Battarbee would teach him to paint. Battarbee agreed, supplied Albert with brushes and paints, and gave him a few pointers on color. Two weeks later, as Battarbee recalls, "Albert brought along a painting ... I immediately saw his talent. Here...
...then, Albert has been able to sell everything he paints. The example of his fat income-which under tribal custom he must share not only with his wife and six children but with hordes of other rela- tives-caused a whole colony of aboriginal artists to spring up at Hermannsburg. Today Hermannsburg has 18 painters (including three of Namatjira's. sons), who collectively gross nearly $8,000 a year. Some of Namatjira's followers, many critics think, are doing better work than the master, whom they regard as too slick. One of the best is Edwin Pareroultja, also...
Good Tucker. Last week Painter Namatjira was back in his simple wooden house in Hermannsburg after his first trip to eastern Australia. Albert made the 1,200-mile journey to Canberra in response to a gold-crested invitation to meet his sovereign. Queen Elizabeth II. After being presented to the Queen, he attended a lavish state ball where the tables groaned with caviar and pheasant. Commented Albert, who still eats honey ants at home: "Good tucker...