Beerbee Mungnari

Beerbee Mungnari was born at Waterloo Station, Northern Territory in 1933. His parents ‘belong to Rosewood’ and this is where he was brought up on a diet, he recalls, of ‘kangaroo soup and goats milk’. He has lived and worked most of his life as a stockman, working on various stations in the East Kimberley region. He grew up at Rosewood Station, then managed by Jack Kilfoyle, and went to work at 16 years of age, on Texas Downs Station. The move to Texas was prompted by a close friendship between the then station manager, Jimmy Cline, and Beerbee’s father. Jimmy had been head stockman for Jack and had recently moved to manage Texas Downs Station. The workers would often spend evenings carving boab nuts with a sharp piece of wire or blade. They would carve turkeys, emus, snakes and crocodiles on the nuts. Beerbee has many stories of the country south and east of Kununurra before Argyle Dam was built. He often recalls how up to 700 cattle were driven by six men, a camp cook and one ‘off-sider’ from the stations through to the cattle port of Wyndham. These trips would take 12 nights. Many of these cattle drives form the basis for Beerbee’s paintings. Late Warmun artists Hector Jandany and Jack Britten often worked alongside Beerbee. Beerbee started to paint in 1982, the same year that the school at Warmun started. Beerbee spent a lot of time painting the early stories to teach students at the new Ngalanganpum School. His early works now form part of the Warmun Community Collection. Beerbee used to watch old Jack Britten paint and started to experiment with ochre himself and learn techniques from some of the early Warmun painters. His interest and love of the country was and still is the major influence for his landscapes. Two of Beerbee’s daughters are artists (Denise and Marika Mung) and show the same talent that makes Beerbee one of Warmun’s most respected artists. His style and method are unique and highly recognisable amongst the work of other Warmun artists. In his later life Beerbee lived at Warmun and Frog Hollow with his daughters and extended family. Beerbee passed away in 2013.