Deutscher and Hackett

Bill Whiskey was a senior Law man, learned in traditional values and a respected healer (Ngangkari). Whiskey was born in Pintjanjatjara country at Pirupa Akla to the west of Uluru (Ayers Rock) around 1920. His early life was spent moving across the country from one dependable waterhole to another. When his father died, as a result of clan conflict, he moved north to the Lutheran Mission community of Haasts Bluff where he was employed as a cook. Here he met Colleen Nampitjinpa whom he later married, and they had five children. After spending some time at Papunya, Whiskey moved his family to Mount Liebig where he became the community's traditional healer.

He first began painting in 2004, by which time he was in his eighties, after requesting paints and canvases from Glenis Wilkins, the art coordinator at Watiyawanu Artists. Gaining almost instant recognition for his bold, colourful compositions, painted with a confidence drawn from the respect paid to him as being Ngangkari, Whiskey was included in 15 group and solo exhibitions in Australia and overseas. As with the majority of the artist's work Rockholes near the Olgas, 2006 depicts stories of his country, Pirupa Akla (the Olgas and Uluru), and of the locations remembered from his travels as a young man to Areyonga and Haasts Bluff.