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Albert Namatjira was an Aboriginal artist well known for his watercolours of Australia’s outback. He was the first Aborigine to be given Australian citizenship. The Archibald Prize-winning portrait of Albert Namatjira by Sir William Dargie (1956) Albert Namatjira’s Early Life Albert Namatjira was born into the Arunta (also called Aranda) tribe near Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission (near Alice Springs) on 28 July 1902. Before he was christened, his name was Elea. The name Namatjira, in Aboriginal language, means ‘flying ant’. Not much is known about Namatjira’s early life except that the staff at the mission noted his skills as a blacksmith and a carpenter. He worked as a stockman, camel-driver and station-hand. He later made Aboriginal weapons and plaques that were sold as souvenirs. The Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission in 1923 When Namatjira was a young man he and Ilkalita (daughter of a leader of a forbidden tribe) had eloped. Later he was forgiven for marring Ilkalita. He took her back to his tribe were she was baptised as a Christian, and given the name of Rubina. They had nine children, two of who died. How He Became An Artist Albert Namatjira became an artist