Simon Tjampu Butler

Simon Tjampu Butler is a senior Pintupi man who was born bush at Kulkurta, an important region northwest of Tjukurla in the Western Desert. As the senior custodian (“boss”) for Kulkurta, his paintings are grounded in a lifetime of cultural responsibility for this country and the Tjukurrpa associated with it.

Simon belongs to the generation of Pintupi people who spent their early lives travelling traditionally through the Western Desert before settling in government communities during the 1960s. His older brother, Anatjari Tjakamarra, was one of the original Papunya painters and a pivotal figure in the emergence of the Western Desert art movement. Beyond his artistic achievements, Anatjari played a leading role in the homelands movement, helping establish the bores and access routes that enabled families to return to and maintain their connection with Kulkurta and surrounding country.

Throughout the 1970s Simon maintained a close relationship with American anthropologist Fred Myers during Myers’ long periods of fieldwork with Pintupi families. Simon’s knowledge of country, ceremony and everyday life contributed to some of the most significant anthropological accounts of the Western Desert, documenting a generation whose lives bridged traditional desert life and the rapid social changes that followed settlement.

Simon now lives in Warakurna with his wife Roma Butler and continues to paint his Tjukurrpa associated with Kulkurta – which is Tjilip law, the higest representations of those dreaming stories.