Timothy Cook Kulama

Timothy Cook has dedicated his art career to painting designs that represent Kulama – a Tiwi coming-of-age ceremony, which coincides with the harvest of wild yam. It is performed late in the wet season when a ring appears around Japarra (the moon). The circles in his work symbolise the moon, yam and ritual circles of the Kulama ceremony. They bring together the old and new in a way that celebrates long-standing cultural designs and symbols as contemporary artwork and a representation of his own spirituality.  

‘I paint Japarra, Kulama and Japalinga [stars]. I will take a painting to heaven so my mother will recognise me,’ says Timothy Cook, a Mananowmi Yimunga man of Murrakupupuni (Country), marntupuni (house fly) skin and tartuwali (shark) yoyi (dance).

Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association, 2023