Wenten Rubuntja

Wenten Rubuntja Pengarte (1926 – July 2005) was an Aboriginal Australian artist and Arrernte man. His early watercolour paintings are typical of the Hermannsburg School of art, while his later work includes dot painting.

He was also an Aboriginal rights activist who worked with the Central Land Council, in Alice Springs (Mparntwe) for several years as well as a number of other Aboriginal organisations.

Early life Rubuntja has said that he was born in between 1923 and 1928 (therefore estimated at 1926) (An official record in 1957 recorded his name as Winton Numaja, and date of birth as 1915.) a small outstation, north of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, Australia and he had the skinname Pengarte. He was the son of goatherd Bob Rubuntja, and had a brother, Ambrose and a sister named Ruby. His father had helped postmaster and anthropologist Frank Gillen, who wrote detailed accounts of Arrernte culture.

During this period it was the missionary Ernest Kramer who gave him his European name.

Rubuntja attended mission schools briefly, but did not learn to read or write. He did however adapt the Christian world view with his own Arrernte traditional spirituality. From this point he worked in various roles, both in and out of Alice Springs, including as stockman, a role for with he travelled widely, as well as taking work as a brickmaker, timber cutter, famer and in other odd jobs. He also rode as a jockey at the Hermannsburg Races.

Career Rubuntja's life changed after seeing his uncle Albert Namatjira at work, and he has said that Namatjira was his primary artistic mentor. They spent a period of time together in the 1950s, during a slow period of stock work, in which he would spend hours watching him paint.

In 1976 he led over 1,000 Aboriginal people through Alice Springs demanding the passage of the Land Rights Act proposed (and passed that year) by the Liberal government led by Malcolm Fraser, and followed that up by touring the country addressing crowds on the topic.

Other roles and activities Rabuntja was also a storyteller and oral historian.

He played football for Amoonguna in Alice Springs.

He assisted archaeologist Mike Smith in his work. Mervyn also painted in the Hermannsburg tradition.

A photograph of Rubuntja by Greg Weight, taken in 1998, hangs in the National Portrait Gallery of Australia. Araluen Collection in Alice Springs