Tiwi artist Timothy Cook is known for his paintings relating to the Kulama ceremonies and initiation rites that take place during the annual Tiyoni (yam) harvest. The large circles in Cook’s paintings symbolise the ancestral hero Japara, the moon man, who casts a golden halo at the end of the wet season to signal the beginning of Kulama. Cook’s rings also refer to ritual circles and the shape of the yam, with his dotted patterns alluding to the stars and the cosmos.

Cook’s paintings recall the designs and practices he learned from his Tiwi Elders, while the distinctive, sweeping gestural style remains all his own.