Mervyn Street

Mervyn Street is a Gooniyandi man. Gooniyandi is one of the two river groups from the country around Fitzroy Crossing. He was born at Louisa Downs Station. Mervyn speaks fluentGooniyandi as well as English. He is a father and grandfather and an important leader for art and culture inMuludja, Yiyili and Pull Out Springs communities. A long-time member and chair of Mangkaja and Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre (KALACC). Mervyn lives in Muludja, a community 45kms from Fitzroy Crossing. He has taken a leadership role politically, actively promoting the importance of retaining culture, protecting the Fitzroy River catchment and the many benefits for Indigenous communities to continue living in their remote homelands.

Mervyn started drawing when he was a young man after seeing a John Wayne cowboy movie that inspired him to draw out what he had just watched. His ability to depict what he sees from memory with drawing continually informs his work and is an accomplished author, illustrator carver, printmaker and painter.

He has authored a book entitled �KnowYour Granny�about his country and his language. He has also co-produced the book titled �Atthe River� and illustrated �The Girl from The Great Sandy Desert�.� Mervyn has used his artwork extensively in Muludja and Yiyili School where he teaches his traditional language.

Mervyn grew up on the stations and worked as a stockman for many years. Station life is a regular subject in his artworks.

�Early days old people didn�t know station animals, I am bringing this history and what we saw in my generation by telling these stories. Still we are learning pigs nanny goats but I had just come out of the bush and I had been living on bush food. I saw these animals for the first time and then I got to work with them. Old people used to spear them and get in trouble, they didn�t know.

�You may look at my work and think it�s good but it has a lot of meaning. The station stories and

early days are when everything changed. I paint about history to make a distinction between Dreamtime and modern history.�

Mervyn is referring the moment in time when contact occurred and saw the introduction of many things to his life and landscape.

Always looking to extend his art skills different mediums to tell his stories Mervyn has produced stop motion and sand animation films. He presented a public demonstration of his technique at DAAF workshops in 2018.

For Desert, River, Sea exhibition at AGWA 2019, Mervyn developed a new technique of carving into cowhide and has since been selected into the prestigious Telstra NATSIAA 2019 and Alice Art Prize 2020 with two more hides he has carved. Mervyn has already conducted two public workshops to share his specialized technique.

“I came up with this idea to shave and work into the hide like this and I’m very happy with the result you’ve never seen anything like this I reckon!”

PAINTING THEMES

Landscapes of Lambardi country Marrara River

Aboriginalstation workers building Louisa Downs Homestead (firsthomestead ever built)

Cattle stock routes between Broome and Wyndam and the Canning Stock Route Mustering and droving days in the 1940s and 1950s

Thefirst cattle trucks moving cattle from Fitzroy Crossing to Broome in the late 1950s

Camp?re stories – old people sitting around the fire telling stories about the old days

Plants and animals

Changingseasons

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2019��������������� Mervyn Street �Stockman Days������������������������ Short St Broome WA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2020��������������� Sydney Contemporary 2020

2020��������������� Ten � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � Aboriginal Contemporary, Sydney

2020��������������� Alice Art Prize � � � � � � � � � � � � � �Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs

2019��������������� National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Art Museum and Art Gallery of NT����������������� ����������� Awards (NATSIAA)

2018��������������� Desert River Sea � � � � � � � � � � � � AGWA, Perth, WA

2018��������������� Port Hedland Art Prize Finalist Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland,WA

2018��������������� NATSIAA � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �Museum and Art Gallery of NT

2017��������������� Tarnarnthi – Abstracted Muster �Adelaide Central Gallery, SA

2017��������������� NATSIAA � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � Museum and Art Gallery of NT

2017��� ���������� �When the Sky Fell� (50^thAnniversary 1967 ���� PICA, Perth

Referendum, curated by Clothilde Bullen)

2016��������������� Revealed � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �Fremantle Art Centre, WA

2015��������������� New Frontiers � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � Linden Art Gallery, St Kilda, Vic

2015��������������� Tanarnthi Art Fair � KAA Prints � Tandanya, Adelaide, SA

2015 �������������� Mervyn Street and Mona Chuguna � Rebecca Hossack Gallery, UK

2015 �������������� In the Saddle On the Wall � � � � � � � Frankston Arts Centre, VIC

2014��������������� In the Saddle On The Wall � � � � � � �Broome, WA

2014��������������� In the Saddle On The Wall � � � � � � �Warringarri Arts, Kununurra, WA

RESIDENCIES/ PROJECTS / PUBLICART

POSITIONS HELD

2017-2018������ Chairperson � Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency

2012-2015������ Chairperson – Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre (KALACC)

AWARDS

COLLECTIONS

New Museum

MAGNT
Art Gallery of Western Australia

British Museum, The United Kingdom

NationalMuseum ofAustralia

Art Gallery of New South Wales

National Gallery ofAustralia

National Gallery of Victoria

Fitzroy Crossing Hospital

Canning Stock Route Collection

CurtinUniversity Collection, Perth

Flinders UniversityArt Museum,Adelaide

Queensland University ofTechnology

PUBLICATIONS

2019��� ����������� Desert River Sea Portraits of the Kimberleys, UWAP Publishing

2017 �������������� �Tarnanthi

2015��������������� The Girl from the Great Sandy Desert, Magabala Books