Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri Pitjantjatjara language, circa 1920-2008

Bill Whiskey's art focuses almost exclusively on the ancestral white cockatoo story from his birthplace of Pirupa Alka, located 130 kilometers south of Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) in Central Australia. This story highlights three birds — the white cockatoo, his friend the eagle, and their adversary, the crow.

The floating roundels, which are some of the most striking compositional elements of the design, symbolise the rock pools formed in the vast desert landscape during the battle between the ancestral birds. Bill Whiskey was the first to conceptualise and innovative stylistic depictions of his birthplace, developing specific iconography for this story within the broader conventions of Western Desert painting. These distinguishing features of his work are products of his mind's eye, perceiving Country as a continuum.