doris bush nungarrayi

Doris Bush was born in Haasts Bluff/Ikuntji circa 1942 and was married to the late George Bush Tjangala, one of Papunya Tula Artists’ original shareholders. In the mid 1980’s the family went to live on an outstation at Nyunmanu in Doris’ mother’s country out towards the WA/NT border. Doris continues to paint Nyunmanu and the traditional Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) of this place, Dingo Dreaming.

Doris’s way contemplates memory, relationships, real experience, a sincerity for their culture and from there what manifests seems to be an infinite story. Within the artists fixation towards Nyumanu she has invented a pictorial language so confident and sophisticated it functions like gospel.

Doris weaves stories through her painting with imagery which represents stories from her life and the life of her family. Her mark making is flowing and instinctual, showing waterholes, root systems of trees and bush tucker, stories of goannas and snakes hunting each other and being hunted for tucker.

Her stories depict Nyunmanu, a Dingo Dreaming (Papa Tjukurrpa) site just to the south east of the remote Aboriginal community of Kintore in the Northern Territory. Most of the dingoes and their pups from this place rose up into the sky and became stars. However, the ancestral mother Dingo and her pup had gone out hunting and were too tired to rise up, so they turned into a large rock that marks the place of this sacred Dreaming.

It is said that if you sleep in this place you will dream of the ancestral dingo puppies. The story goes that if you remove one of the gleaming stones found at Nyunmanu, the puppies will haunt your dreams until you return it to the place where it belongs. The custodians of this Tjukurrpa are Nungarrayi, Tjungarrayi, Napaltjarri and Tjapaltjarri women and men.

Doris also paints vivid memories, stories and dreams from her life, with her work often telling happy stories from her early days in Ikuntji; eating, hunting and swimming with her friends and family in the bush. Doris’ works embody her nature of a true storyteller with her expressive style, bold use of colour and recognisable motifs. Doris is renowned as one of the most prolific and enthusiastic artists in the community and is usually the first to arrive each morning when - or even before - the doors open.

She is the Winner of 2023 Sulman Prize and is a finalist for the 2023 Wynne Prize, 2020 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize (2019) and shortlisted in the Alice Art Prize (2018). Her work is held in the Artbank Collection, Macquarie Bank Collection, AGNSW, University of Western Sydney Collection, The Hassall Collection and private collections.