Timo Hogan Australian, Pitjantjatjara, b. 1973

Timo grew up with stories of life in the Spinifex Lands. His mother and family dug themselves into the sand dunes to try to avoid the smoke from the Maralinga atomic bomb. Before he wasborn she walked to a location close to Tjuntjuntjara and found a pileof tin meat left by thepatrol officer. A white man came and picked all the people up in an old Landrover and drove them into Cundeelee Mission. Later his mother was driven from Cundeelee to the old hospital in Kalgoorlie for Timo’s birth in 1973. After his birth his mother succumbed to the lure of alcohol in Kalgoorlie and struggled to look after a new baby properly. Timo’s father came and took him to Mt Margaret. He spent his formative years here with his father, Neville McCarthur and his stepmother Alkawari. They livedat Mt Margaret until the family moved to Warburton, closer to his father’s traditional lands. Alkawari did not speak Pitjantjatjara or Ngaanyatjarra as she was from a different Aboriginal tribe, but spoke in English to Timo and he is now fluent in all three languages.Once back in country Timo’s father took him to all the culturally significant places. He wantedto introduce him to the country, to the spirit caretakers and teach him the law. “My father took me to Lake Baker, all around, rockhole and all. I know all these places but I can’t show them.Millmillpa (dangerously sacred). I’m taking over this country now, as my father is getting old. I’m the only son and people say we are like twins, my father and me. We look the same. I knowhow to use spears–he taught me everything.”Timo went through Men’s Business initiation at Warburton. The group travelled down to Tjuntjuntjara on the business run. “My father’s really a Spinifex Man. His brothers are Hogan and Jamieson”. After going through business Timo settled in Tjuntjuntjara and lived with hismother. His father visited regularly before he got too old to make the long journey.For a brief period in the 2000’s Timo lived at Kalka as his mother married a man from there. Hedid his first canvas, a painting of the Lake Baker with Ninuku Artists in 2004. After a long breakof nearly 10 years he has started painting again. Painting his country, the vast salt lake, theplace he now has cultural obligations to look after. A place of power and danger. “I’ve rediscovered my love for painting. I do painting all the time now. I’m painting my country Lake Baker”In 2021 Timo’s work ‘Lake Baker’ was the overall winner in prestigious Telstra National Aboriginal and TorresStraitIslander Art Awards. His works are highly sought after and hang inmajor public institutions and art museums as well as substantial private collections.