Ronnie Tjampitjinpa was born at Muyin, deep in sandhill country, just west of the Northern Territory/Western Australian border. He was initiated at Yumari, a rockhole associated with his uncle, the artist Uta Uta Tjangala. Later that year Tjampitjinpa's family was surprised when a relative, Charlie Wartuma Tjungurrayi, appeared from the east leading a group of camels. Wartuma persuaded the group to return with him to experience life at the mission-run ration station at Haasts Bluff. And so it was that in 1956, Tjampitjinpa came into contact with the intercultural world that lay outside the dunefields of the Gibson Desert.

Tjampitjinpa was among the youngest men to be involved during the first flush of painti...