Yannima tommy watson biography of abraham

Pitjantjatjara-speaking Indigenous Australian artist (1935–2017)

Yannima Tommy Watson (1930s – November 2017), known as Tommy Watson, was an Indigenous Australian artist, of the Pitjantjatjara people from Australia's central western desert.

He was described by one critic as "the greatest living painter of the Western Desert".^[4]

Early life

Tommy Yannima Pikarli Watson was a senior Pitjantjatara elder and law man of the Karima skin group.^[5] He was born around 1935 in Anumarapiti, 75 kilometres (47 mi) west of Irrunytju,^[6][7] also known as Wingellina, in Western Australia, near the junction of its border with the Northern Territory and South Australia.

His given names of Yannima and Pikarli relate to specific sites near Anumarapiti.^[8]

Watson's mother died during his infancy, and his father when he was about eight years old. He subsequently went to live with his father's brother, who himself die