Wenten Rubuntja
He was also an Aboriginal rights activist who worked on the Central Land Council in the Northern Territory for several years.
Wenten Rubuntja has said that he was born in between 1923 and 1928 (therefore estimated at 1926)[a] in Burt's [sic] Creek, north of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia.
[1] Bob Rubuntja helped postmaster and anthropologist Frank Gillen, who wrote detailed accounts of Arrernte culture.
[1] As a young man, Rubuntja was taken to Mount Hay, the traditional land of his father, where he was entrusted with the Fire Dreaming story that was part of his cultural heritage.
[5] In the early 1940s he lived at the Little Flower Catholic Mission near Alice Springs, before moving to a location near The Bungalow, an institutional home for Aboriginal children, in 1945.
[6] During World War II, he hunted kangaroos to feed the troops, and also performed menial jobs on cattle stations that were open to Aboriginal people.
[5] Rubuntja's life changed after seeing his uncle Albert Namatjira at work, and he decided to turn to painting and advocacy for his community.
[5] Rubuntja was a skilled negotiator, being able to integrate Indigenous and non-Indigenous concepts in a way that brought resolutions that satisfied all parties.
[5] He co-founded Tangentyere Council, which provided tenure and essential services for Alice Springs town camps, and he also played a role in the founding of Yipirinya School and the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress.
On either side of the portrait, one in watercolour and the other created with acrylic on canvas are works by Rubuntja: on the left, Uriatherrke (Mt Zell); and on the right, a dot painting of the caterpillar (altyerre) Dreaming at Nthwerrke (Emily Gap).
Tangentyere Council, which he co-founded, paid tribute to him, saying that he played a key role in gaining tenure and rights for residents of the Alice Springs town camps, and "set an example of leadership that has been an inspiration to the next generation of Aboriginal leaders".
