AM 16896/19

Pampirla, pronounced Bombala, also uses the name Hanson Boxer. Pampirla’s artefacts are highly sought after. His repertoire includes carved wooden figures of Walmajarri men in traditional dance head-dress from the Majarrka Corroboree, boomerangs (karli) and clapping sticks. The karli may be watarka (hunting), wilgin (‘number 7’, hunting/fighting) or yilbidi/jarangarr (singing), and are generally carved from Bloodwood. Goanna or kangaroo fat is usually used to oil the boomerangs, though bullock fat may also be used. Pampirla is the son of the famous Fitzroy artist Boxer Yanker who married Paji Honeychild. Pampirla calls her Mummy One. His father had walked in from Kaningara, in the Great Sandy Desert as a child in the 1920’s. Pampirla grew up on Cherrabun Station where he learnt to be stockman from the age of 12. He worked on Old Cherrabun and other West Kimberley stations for 20 years, until the implementation of award wages for aboriginal stockmen caused most of them to lose their jobs. In 1989, after almost 10 years of letter writing and talks with state and federal politicians and government departments, Pampirla was successful in acquiring a 99 year lease on an excision from Old Cherabun Station. During the next 15 years he and the other families who had grown up on the station established Yakanarra Community, which today has over two hundred residents and 40 houses.