Pastor Roy Yaltjanki

Roy was born c.1933 at a sacred waterhole called Wangkari in the Petermann Ranges. He grew up in the Kaltukatjara area with his family and remembers this as a time of plenty when the abundance of bush food and fresh water sustained many Anangu. As a child, he saw planes fly overhead and occasionally missionaries would travel through his family's country, but they largely lived a traditional lifestyle without major settler intervention for most of the 1930s.

During a severe drought when he was a young boy, many extended family and distant relatives came to Wangkari as the other water sources in the Petermann Ranges area dried up. In around 1942, Roy’s family made the decision to walk many days across a vast salt lake (Lake Amadeus) to the Areyonga Mission, reuniting with family they had not seen for many years. Roy went to school at the Mission, then as a young man travelled back through his home country. He married his first wife, and they had several children together before she passed away.

Later in life, he remarried his teenage sweetheart, renowned ngangkari Pantjiti McKenzie AO. Roy also became an ordained Lutheran minister and travelled across the Western Desert for a number of years.

He now lives in Kaltukatjara (Docker River) community with many generations of his family. Roy has been painting and carving punu (wooden artefacts) for decades, and since 2023 has painted from open until close each day at Kaltukatjara art centre. Pastor Roy has a strong love for his country, underpinned by his deep spiritual knowledge, and he continues to be a spiritual guide and leader for his community. With his paintings, Pastor Roy offers viewers visions of his country as he saw it as a young man: beautiful, bountiful, lively, and full of joy.