Born c. 1939- Deceased 2022
Wokka was born in the late 1940s at Kaljali waterhole in the Kulyakartu area; flat, grass Country in the far north of the Martu homelands and close to the Percival Lakes region. He was the middle brother to fellow Martumili Artists Muuki Taylor and Ngalangka Nola Taylor. Like his brother and sister, Wokka was a highly regarded cultural leader.
In his youth Wokka’s family seasonally travelled between the Kulyakartu and Percival Lakes regions depending on the availability of water and the corresponding cycles of plant and animal life, on which hunting and gathering bush tucker was reliant. Generally, they lived in Kulyakartu during the wet season, when the claypans filled with rain, and the Percival Lakes area during the dry season, when they could rely on the area’s many permanent soaks. They continued to live a pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) lifestyle until being collected from Balfour Downs Station and taken to Jigalong Mission in the 1960s. They were one of the last Martu families to leave the desert.
At Jigalong Wokka married Kanu (Karnu) Nancy Taylor (dec.); the pair were inseparable through to her passing in 2019. From Jigalong the couple lived and worked together on several cattle stations throughout the Pilbara. Eventually they relocated with their family to Parnngurr Aboriginal community as foundational community members during the ‘Return to Country’ movement of the 1980’s. Wokka and Kanu lived in Parnngurr for the rest of their lives.
Wokka painted his ngurra (home Country, camp), the Country he walked as a young man; its animals, plants, waterholes and associated Jukurrpa (Dreaming) narratives. His work has been exhibited widely across Australia and collected by the National Museum of Australia and the Art Gallery of Western Australia.
COLLECTIONS
ART GALLERY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIA
