Word: namatjira
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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...