Mervyn Street is a Gooniyandi man. Gooniyandi is one of the two river groups from the country around Fitzroy Crossing. He was born at Louisa Downs Station. Mervyn speaks fluent Gooniyandi as well as English. He is a father and grandfather and an important leader for art and culture in Muludja, Yiyili and Pull Out Springs communities. A long time member and chair of Mangkaja and Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre (KALACC). Mervyn lives in Muludja, a community 45kms from Fitzroy Crossing. He has taken a leadership role politically, actively promoting the importance of retaining culture, protecting the Fitzroy River catchment and the many benefits for Indigenous communities to continue living in their remote homelands.

Mervyn started drawing when he was a young man after seeing a John Wayne cowboy movie that inspired him to draw out what he had just watched. His ability to depict what he sees from memory with drawing continually informs his work and is an accomplished author, illustrator carver, printmaker and painter.

He has authored a book entitled ‘Know Your Granny’ about his country and his language. He has also co-produced the book titled ‘At The River’ and illustrated ‘The Girl from The Great Sandy Desert’. Mervyn has used his artwork extensively in Muludja and Yiyili School where he teaches his traditional language.

Mervyn grew up on the stations and worked as a stockman for many years. Station life is a regular subject in his artworks.
“Early days old people didn’t know station animals, I am bringing this history and what we saw in my generation by telling these stories. Still we are learning pigs nanny goats but I had just come out of the bush and I had been living on bush food. I saw these animals for the first time and then I got to work with them. Old people used to spear them and get in trouble, they didn’t know.
“You may look at my work and think it’s good but it has a lot of meaning. The station stories and early days are when everything changed. I paint about history to make a distinction between Dreamtime and modern history.”
Mervyn is referring the moment in time when contact occurred and saw the introduction of many things to his life and landscape.
Always looking to extend his art skills using different mediums to tell his stories, Mervyn has produced stop motion and sand animation films. He presented a public demonstration of his technique at DAAF workshops in 2018.
For Desert River Sea AGWA Mervyn developed a new technique of carving into cowhide and has since been selected into the prestigious Telstra NATSIAA 2019 and Alice Art Prize 2020 with two more hides he has carved. Mervyn has already conducted two public workshops to demonstrate and share his unique invention.
“I came up with this idea to shave and work into the hide like this and I’m very happy with the result you’ve never seen anything like this I reckon!”
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2019. Mervyn Street –Stockman Days Short St, Broome, WA.
2012 Mervyn Street – My First Solo Exhibition, Mossenson Galleries, Subiaco, WA.

ART PRIZES:
2020 Alice Art Prize Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT.
2019 National Indigenous and Torres Strait Island Awards MAGNT, Darwin, NT.
2018 Port Hedland Art Prize Finalist Courthouse Gallery,Port Hedland, WA.
2018 National Indigenous and Torres Strait Island Awards MAGNT, Darwin,
2017 National Indigenous and Torres Strait Island Awards MAGNT, Darwin, NT.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018 Desert River Sea AGWA, Perth, WA.
2017 Tarnarnthi – Abstracted Muster Adelaide Central Gallery, SA.
2017 “When the Sky Fell” (50th Anniversary 1967 Referendum curated by Clothilde
Bullen) PICA, Perth, WA
2016 Revealed Fremantle Art Centre, WA
2015 New Frontiers Linden Art Gallery, St Kilda, Vic
2015 Mervyn Street and Mona Chuguna Rebecca Hossack Gallery, UK
2015 In the Saddle On the Wall Frankston Arts Centre, VIC