Leigh Namponan (b. 1965) was raised in Aurukun and spent much of his childhood at Warpang Outstation on the Southern Wik homelands, his father’s Country. He is the second eldest of eight children born to Angus Namponan and Chrissie Peemuggina and belongs to the Apalech ceremonial clan through his father. Leigh speaks three Wik languages: Wik-Alkan (father’s side), Wik-Ngathan (mother’s side), and Wik-Mungkan, the common language of Aurukun.
Leigh holds multiple clan totems in accordance with Wik custom. His traditional homelands lie south of Aurukun and include Aayk, the Kirk River, and Warpang near Cape Keer-Weer. His father, Angus Namponan, was a highly respected Wik carver, a practice continued by several of his sons. Leigh works across woodcarving, painting, ceramics, and printmaking and is part of a core group of artists at the Wik & Kugu Arts Centre.
Today, Leigh lives in Aurukun, the major centre of Wik cultural life where art is inseparable from Country, language, ceremony, and law. Aurkun is well known Artists draw on deep ancestral knowledge connected to clan estates, story places, and totemic beings, expressing these relationships through carving, painting, printmaking, and contemporary media. The strong continuity of cultural practice in Aurukun is sustained through family lineages, language transmission, and the work of the art centre, which supports artists to share Wik cultural knowledge in ways that are both culturally grounded and innovative.
Interview with Leigh:
Ngay.in ngan.a, Wik-Ngathan.a, a, thamp.a Wik Clan.a. Ngay ngan.a, thamp Saltwater People ngan Apalech. Aak anan pal yiip.a Kirke River.ang a. Ayke.
I’m a Wik-Ngathan man from the Wik Clan. I come from the Saltwater People who are known as Apalech. My Country is the Kirke River and the place called Ayke.
In the old days, me and my brothers would head out to Deep Water Landing where we would connect to the outstations. We were fencing with my grandfather, old Waal Waal Peemugina. This was at Thaa’ Achamp on the river side along the Timber Country. We made fences to keep them bullocks from going across the old road. This is the road that goes to Waathaniin.
My cousin Colin Yunkaporta was a well-known stockman and I learnt a lot from him. We lived out at the Station called Bamboo. I was working there from a young age. I did many different jobs like building the bridge at a place called Okanch with Bill Fulla, Noel Waterman and some of my cousin brothers like Bruce Bell.
When I was 28 years of age I started doing my art. My dad was the one who taught me. He showed me what he was doing with our totems. I still carry on his tradition. I work with all different kinds of timbers and ochres. My art is always about my culture, the Land and the Sea.
I like doing this art because it helps me learn more about our culture. I like to show others how we make art here in Aurukun.