Tjukurrtjanu: Origins of Western Desert Art

Standing tall, and with a lean hunter-warrior build, there was a touch of vanity about him. He knew that he was a handsome man. He wore a tightly bunched cluster of white feathers in his bright red headband and a long nose-bone horizontally through his nose. There was no more striking figure in the Pintupi camp. (R. G. (Dick) Kimber, 2011)

Timmy Payungka was born at Parayirpilynga near Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay). During his childhood and adolescence, a time of severe drought, he travelled with his family in search of rations, east to Haasts Bluff, north to Balgo and south to Warburton, where he met his wife. In 1957 Timmy and his young family were met by Welfare Branch patrol officer Jeremy Long at Yarannga rockhole. The following year he walked with his extended family and his father-in-law Uta Uta Tjangala into Haasts Bluff and then moved to Papunya.

Timmy used his language skills to assist Geoffrey Bardon and was one of the few to speak Warlpiri, which he used to encourage a sharing of ritual knowledge. In 1971–72 he was an inventive artist, painting a range of subjects, including those of Dancing Women, Dingo, Snake and Water Dreaming. In 1994 a solo exhibition of Timmy Payungka's work was held at Aboriginal and South Pacific Gallery, Sydney.

Timmy was a keen advocate for the resettlement of the Pintupi homelands. From the mid 1990s, he lived in Alice Springs with his wife and two daughters to be close to the dialysis unit, where he received regular treatment. During this period he painted some optical geometric works in black and black or red and white, which reference the interlocking key design that is incised on pearl shell pendants, shields and other men's objects and is associated with water.