Biography

Wadjigan/Batjamal, b. 1972 Helen McCarthy Tyalmuty is a Wadjigan woman from Bulgul Country in the western Wagait region of the Northern Territory. Born in Tennant Creek, she spent much of her childhood at Nauiyu Nambiyu on the Daly River. Her ancestors are from saltwater Country, her language is Batjamal and her totem is the mud crab. Helen began developing her practice while studying teaching and participated in her first arts festival in 1993. After working as a teacher in remote communities for a decade, she became a full-time artist around 2003. Country: Bulgul Helen’s work is grounded in Bulgul Country, family histories and cultural knowledge passed through generations. Her paintings explore saltwater Country, bush life and practices such as gathering food, caring for Country and making canoes. Individual works may draw upon ancestral stories, personal memories or the lives of family members, including her grandfather Tyemeny Liman, a renowned canoe maker whose final canoe became the subject of one of Helen’s best-known paintings. Style and Technique Helen works across an unusually broad visual language, combining intricate dotting, delicate brushwork, abstract forms and intuitive arrangements of space. Some paintings are densely layered and rhythmically detailed, while others are open, restrained and contemplative. This versatility allows her to move between expansive interpretations of Country and more intimate family narratives without losing the distinctive movement and complexity of her practice. Helen’s Palette Helen’s palette ranges from vivid, densely layered colour to restrained combinations of black, white and earth-based tones. Blues, greens, ochres, reds and luminous accents often gather in overlapping fields, evoking water, vegetation, fire and seasonal change. In quieter works, limited colour and open space create a more solemn or meditative presence. For the Collector Helen received the People’s Choice Award at the 2007 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards for Tyemeny Liman’s Wutinggi – Grandpa Harry’s Canoe. She won the Margaret Olley Art Award at the 2017 Mosman Art Prize, the Aboriginal Art Award at the 2020 Fisher’s Ghost Art Award and the 2026 Alice Prize for Bush Honey. Her work has been presented at the National Museum of Australia and is held in the collections of Deakin University, Araluen Arts Centre and Fondation Burkhardt-Felder Arts et Culture in Switzerland.