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about
the
trust

an artist's gift to artists

Before his death in 2002, Jimmy Pike made a remarkable provision in his will: a Trust that would receive the future earnings from his artworks and licensed designs, and use them for the benefit of other Aboriginal artists. Proceeds from sales of his paintings, royalties from his designs, and the generosity of public donors sustain that vision today.

In 2010, Jimmy's widow and long-time collaborator, Pat Lowe, inaugurated the Jimmy Pike Scholarship - the Trust's flagship program, which ran every year from 2010 to 2019. Through a relationship Jimmy himself established with the School of Communications and Arts at Edith Cowan University in Perth, the scholarship brought two or three Aboriginal artists from the Kimberley to the university's printmaking studios each year, extending in practical form the two-way exchange of skills and stories that defined Jimmy's own career. After a pause, the Trust is preparing to relaunch the scholarship in 2027.

founded: 2008

registered as a charity: 2012

scholarships awarded: 21

how the trust works

Pat Lowe oversaw the Trust until her death in 2026. Financial and administrative matters are overseen by a volunteer management committee through Wyemando Bequest. A part-time Project Officer supports the committee and is the first point of contact for artists, art centres, and donors. The Trust is sustained by three streams: sales of Jimmy's artworks, royalties from the licensed use of his designs, and public donations - every gift of $2 or more is tax deductible.

Learn more about Wyemando

about
jimmy pike

You call it desert,

we used to live there

Jimmy Pike

desert born

Jimmy Pike was born circa 1940, east of Japirnka, an important waterhole in the Great Sandy Desert. He grew up living a traditional ife, learning the law of his Walmajarri ancestors. As he and his family moved through the desert country on foot, Jimmy was taught knowledge handed down through generations: the names of waterholes, animals birds and plants, and their stories, cultural significance and uses.

The arrival of European settlers in the Kimberley brought the age-old desert life to an end. In the 1950s, Pike and his family joined the movement north to the sheep and cattle stations of the river valleys, where life was reputed to be much easier than in the sandhills, and food more plentiful. After living for a time in the hills around the Cherrabun Station, he joined his relations in the station camp and worked as a stockman on Cherrabun and many other stations across the Kimberley.

jimmy pike

walmajarri artist

Born: great sandy desert
c. 1940 - 2002

an artist emerges

Life on the stations exposed Pike to both Christianity and alcohol, and the latter got him into trouble with white law and he served a number of years in prison. He served several years in prison, first in Perth, and later nearer home, in Broome. It was in Fremantle Prison that everything changed: Pike joined art classes, learned to paint and cut lino, and rapidly developed a style entirely his own. His work soon reached the public through exhibitions and in the fashion world through the Desert Designs label.

"Pike launched a whole new palette in ways that would confound the purists of the time. His use of almost fluorescent blues, greens, yellows and reds, and virtual abandonment of the iconography usually associated with Western Desert art, was crucial in taking Indigenous art in another direction, into the wider application of contemporary Indigenous imagery in the commercial world of fabrics and fashion design. Jimmy's work was to feature ultimately on catwalks, as well as in galleries around Australia and in London, Tokyo and Beijing."

Akerman, Kim. 2010. In Franchesca Cubillo and Wally Caruana (eds) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art: collection highlights. National Gallery of Australia: Canberra.

Country, partnership and recognition

While in Broome Prison Pike met Pat Lowe, who was working there as a psychologist. Lowe later joined him in his desert camp and shared his three years of parole. Later, the pair returned to live in Broome, while keeping their small camp in the desert, returning from time to time. Together they collaborated on a series of books based on Pike's life, which he illustrated.

Though strikingly contemporary in technique and palette, Pike's art never left Walmajarri Country - it depicted the places and events of significance he had learned as a boy. As a Native Title claimant, Pike took part in field trips and was once of the painters of the famous Ngurrara canvas, which was used as a map in the claim.

PIKE
IN THE DESERT

enduring influence and relevance

In his later years, Pike travelled widely, holding exhibitions in the Philippines, China, Namibia, Italy and the United Kingdom, making an impression everywhere through his art and his personality. He died suddenly in 2002. His work remains in the collections of Australia's major public galleries, continues to be exhibited, and lives on in fashion through Desert Designs - and through the Trust and scholarship that carry his name.