Collection: Tommy Watson

DOB around 1935

Birthplace Anamarapiti

Skin Group Karimara

Yannima Tommy Watson was a senior APY Lands painter who was born at Anamarapiti, about 40kms from Irrunytju Community (Wingellina) in Western Australia. Watson was a Pitjantjatjara man.

Tommy spent his early childhood and teenage years travelling from water hole to water hole, hunting and gathering and learning from his father the practical skills on how to survive on their lands in the arid regions of the Gibson Desert. Watson lost his mother early and his father at the age of 7 when travelling from one waterhole to the other, so he was adopted by Nicodemus Watson, his father's first cousin. While growing up he learned to understand the significance of social organization and the spiritual and tribal law teachings of his ancestors. Watson also inherited the knowledge on how to find water and food within their region.

"My grandfather's country, grandmother's country. When they were alive, they would take me around the country, when I was a kid. That's why we look after country, go out whenever we can. See if the rock holes are good"

The fate of Watson and his family and many of the other western desert nomads was sealed with the introduction of assimilation policies. This combined with the severe drought throughout the 1950's resulted in many of the Pitjantjatjara, Ngaanyatjarra and Pintupi Aboriginal people moving from their home lands to the administrative centres in Warburton, Ernabella and Papunya. The unfamiliar world of the Government settlements was no place for these free nomadic people who were used to a life of unlimited travel. They became disoriented, most never adjusting. Tragically, more than half of the population of these new communities died. Eventually in the late 1970's and early 1980's most returned to their traditional homelands.