Ernabella Arts: MY PLACE - an online exhibition by info@artitja.com.au

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ERNABELLA ARTS – ABOUT PLACE

an online exhibition An exhibition of paintings from Ernabella Arts, Australia’s oldest, continuously running Indigenous Art Centre located in Pukatja Community at the eastern end of the Musgrave ranges in the far north west of South Australia. Artitja Fine Art Gallery is based in South Fremantle and is open by appointment outside of our exhibition program, details of which can be found on our website. E | info@artitja.com.au T | Anna 0418 900 954 W | www.artitja.com.au Postal| PO Box 406, South Fremantle, WA 6162

ERNABELLA ARTS – ABOUT PLACE Artitja Fine Art Gallery is delighted to be a partner Gallery with Ernabella Arts in bringing the art to the city from this remote location. This special collection of paintings from the art centre from the Anangu people of the Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara language groups (APY lands) has been selected by Artitja Fine Art Gallery Director Anna Kanaris. Ernabella Arts was established in 1937 as part of a Presbyterian Mission Pukatja and was the first permanent settlement on the APY Lands. In 1948 a craft room was established in which hand loomed woven fabrics, hand pulled and knotted floor rugs had a unique pattern called ‘walka’. Walka became what could be deemed a ‘signature’ design of Ernabella. More recently the Senior women moved away from the walka design of the early days to concentrate on depicting their sacred stories of country and law, or their ‘Tjukurpa’, creating a reputation for innovation and adaptability through welcoming and adapting their knowledge and practice to different mediums since the craft room began. Today it is a varied group of artists working through the centre, and it is a mix of young and old, men and women. There are very senior Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara men including NATSIAA award finalists and winners. The members of Ernabella Arts are always reinvigorating their centre, seeing it through its evolution from the first incarnation as a craft room, into a culturally strong contemporary art centre. Ernabella Arts is an Aboriginal owned and run corporation which promotes and supports ethical practice in the creation and sale of Indigenous art. In the words of the community “Ernabella Arts is a place where we senior women and men and young women and men practice and develop our art, in order to sustain, support and promote our cultural heritage, and to improve the lifestyle of our Community’s members” Information provided in association with Ernabella Arts ©

Artitja Fine Art Gallery is based in South Fremantle and is open by appointment outside of our exhibition program, details of which can be found on our website. E | info@artitja.com.au T | Anna 0418 900 954 W | www.artitja.com.au Postal| PO Box 406, South Fremantle, WA 6162

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ATIPALKU INTJALKI

Page | 3 Tjukurpa Mulayangu 150x90cm ART49618

“It is a men’s law place men’s Tjukurpa. He made this place, this campsite. He made this place. Mulayangu made this place. Over there (west) the other side of Amata. My father’s country. This is a sacred place called Tankalanya. This is all I can say” Artitja Fine Art Gallery is based in South Fremantle and is open by appointment outside of our exhibition program, details of which can be found on our website. E | info@artitja.com.au T | Anna 0418 900 954 W | www.artitja.com.au Postal| PO Box 406, South Fremantle, WA 6162

ATIPALKU INTJALKI

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I was born in Ernabella (in 1955), I started working in the Ernabella Arts when they were doing batik, wool rugs and weaving over 50 years ago. Now I paint and I have for a long time . In my painting I am passing on my Mother’s story. I have contributed to many exhibitions both national and international. Atipalku Intjalki

ATIPALKU INTJALKI

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Tjukurpa Mulayangu 150x120cm ART24418

Tjukurpa Mulayangu 120x100cm ART57418

ALISON LIONEL Page | 6

Born in 1983, Alison is third out of four generations of the Lionel family working at Ernabella Arts. Her grandmother is very senior artist Pantjiti Lionel, her mother is 2015 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award (Telstra awards) recipient followed by her sister Rachael Mipantjiti Lionel who was a finalist the following year. Alison is an emerging painter and ceramic artist and mother to four. In 2017 she participated in an inter‐generational collaborative painting teaching project. During the project Alison was mentored by senior artists Tjunkaya Tapaya and Tjariya Stanley.

ALISON LIONEL Page | 7

Likara (bark) 116x88cm ART5920AL

Likara (bark) 116x88cm ART10720AL

A quiet observer, Alison often walks gently around the community with her daughter on her shoulders looking at nature. Something she has been paying attention to is the movement on trees. Her paintings are inspired by the shifts and wandering lines of their bark. Artitja Fine Art Gallery is based in South Fremantle and is open by appointment outside of our exhibition program, details of which can be found on our website. E | info@artitja.com.au T | Anna 0418 900 954 W | www.artitja.com.au Postal| PO Box 406, South Fremantle, WA 6162

CARLENE THOMPSON Page | 8

Emu Country. This artwork depicts Carlene’s family’s country which is near Kanypi in the western APY lands. It is the country of the emu (kalaya) which is the ancestral being who formed that part of the country. The kalaya travelled from Kanypi to Watarru. It is very typical for the kalaya to have many children, like Carlene, who had six children.

Kalaya Ngura 152x122cm ART59619

CARLENE THOMPSON Page | 9

Carlene was born Carlene De Rose, in Finke in 1950. She met her husband, Kunmanara (Kawaki) Thompson OAM, at De Rose Hill, and they were married there. Her late husband was a highly regarded senior Pitjantjatjara man who was a major figure in the Land Rights Movement. Carlene and her husband had one son, and five daughters, three of whom also work at the art centre. Carlene started painting at the art centre in 2007 and quickly developed a very individual style. In 2009 Carlene began to concentrate on ceramics. Her work is contemporary while being based on Country and the creation being of her family's country, the kalaya (emu). Carlene's art has been shown in many exhibitions both nationally and internationally. It has also been acquired for the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery collection. Carlene has twice been a finalist in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA). She is a strong participant in women's ceremony and is passing this knowledge down to her daughters. Carlene is on the Ernabella Arts board. She lives near Ernabella at the homeland Black Hill No. 2.

CARLENE THOMPSON Page | 10

Kalaya Ngura 152x122cm ART4120

ELIZABETH DUNN

Piltati – Elizabeth Dunn’s Story 180x100cm ART13020ED

Two brothers were married to two sisters and they all lived together. One day the two men go out hunting, looking for malu (kangaroo). They travel everywhere and find nothing. They start to worry. “What are we going to do, there is no meat on this land? One brother says “maybe we should turn into something?”. They start to think about what they should turn into. “Maybe firewood?” “No, the firewood burns”. “Maybe emu or a bird?” “No, people eat them”. They do a lot of talking and decide they should turn into Wanampi – rainbow serpents. A lot of smoke starts to come out of the ground, it is very scary and then the men become Wanampi. They travel into the land, towards a rockhole. Meanwhile the two women are waiting for their husbands to return from their hunting trip. They wait a very long time. They keep going on with their lives, collecting bush tucker, waiting… but the men never came back. So they decide to set out to find their husbands. One day, they come across a hole in the ground. They start digging. Digging, digging, digging, they follow the tunnel inside the ground. They are so frantically digging they accidently hit one of the Wanampi in the back. The Wanampi chase the ladies and eat one them, one women gets away. Now, the Wanampi still live in the waterhole called Piltati. The Wanampi still live there today and provide rain for the bush tucker to grow and provide meat on the land. Piltati is Elizabeth’s great‐ grandfather’s country and her dreaming story. © Elizabeth Dunn/Ernabella Arts

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ELIZABETH DUNN Elizabeth was born in Ernabella in 1973. She went to high school in Adelaide before returning home. She spent her childhood watching her elders paint and now depicts her grandmother's country, a place named Piltati near Nyapari, on canvas. She also depicts stories relating to Kampurara ‐ Bush Tomatoes. She is also a talented tjanpi weaver and jeweller. She first began painting at Papunya Tjupi Arts in Papunya community. Elizabeth is a rising star of the Ernabella ceramics studio. In August 2016 her ceramic work was exhibited alongside six other Ernabella women in a collaborative ceramics installation as part of the Indigenous Ceramics Art Award at the Shepparton Art Museum and subsequently acquired by the National Museum of Australia. In 2017 Elizabeth had her ceramics exhibited in major exhibitions at Talapi Gallery, Sturt Gallery, Alcaston Gallery, Harvey Arts (USA) and Araluen Art Centre as part of Desert Mob. Her work also featured in Clay Stories: Contemporary Indigenous ceramics from remote Australia at Jam Factory presented by Sabbia Gallery, Sydney for Tarnanthi: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. Clay Stories toured through regional galleries throughout 2018 and 2019. In March 2018, Elizabeth’s work was exhibited in the APY Gallery's inaugural exhibition ‐ MALATJA TJUTANGKU ARA IRITITJA KUNPUNKU | Old Knowledge, Young Blood. In the same year her work was exhibited in Art from the APY Art Centre Collective at Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne and Hold our connection to country strong for malatja‐malatja (future generations) at Aboriginal Signature gallery, Brussels, among others. In 2018 Elizabeth was shortlisted for the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award and was the winner of the Indigenous Award, Port Hacking Potter Group 50th National Pottery Competition. In 2020 Elizabeth’s painting was featured in Artitja Fine Art’s Gallery I KNOW MY COUNTRY exhibition held in South Fremantle, Western Australia.

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FRANCIE INKATJI Page | 13

Ngayuku Ngura 89x76cm ART2218FI

A depiction of the artist’s country, the different colours and designs represent variations in the landscape.

IMITJALA PANTJITI LEWIS

There are many stories about the two sisters (Minyma Kutjara). This part of the story is significant to the women of Ernabella. There was a gathering of minyma mingkiri (mouse women) at a hill called Yunanpa, which is near Ngarutjara (to the north of Ernabella). They are all collecting bushfoods together when the two sisters decide to go travelling. They travel to several water places to the north and east of Ernabella including Alalka. They keep going until they get to Wamitjara, a waterhole near Kenmore park. Here they come across a man sleeping. They hit him over the head with their wana (digging stick) and knock him unconscious. Then they tie up his arms and legs and head towards Alice Springs, carrying him between them. They sing and dance sacred women’s stories all the way. They leave him at Stuart’s Well, and continue on to Alice Springs to meet up with a large group of women. © Imitjala Pantjiti Lewis/Ernabella Arts

Minyma Kutjara (Near Ernabella) 100x84cm ART1119

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JANICE STANLEY Janice Stanley, born in 1987 is the third generation of Stanley women to create artwork at Ernabella Arts. She is an early career painter and ceramic artist showing great promise. Her grandmother is a founding artist and traditional healer Tjariya Stanley and her aunts are senior artists, Alison Milyika Carroll and Renita Stanley. Janice is part of a group of young women leading the Ernabella ceramics studio, despite only commencing work in late 2015. She has been exhibited around Australia and internationally, in Darwin, Alice Springs, Broome, Sydney and Brussels. Janice has two children. Janice's work depicts pantu, or salt lakes near Atilla (Mt Connor). This is a significant location for the Seven Sister’s creation story. This story tells of seven sisters running across the country creating landforms in their wake. Although Janice has never seen them from this perspective herself, she imagines viewing the salt lakes from above. Janice is both an extremely talented painter and ceramicist at Ernabella Ngayuku nguru. 27x16x16cm ART396C18JS

Arts.

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LANGKALIKI LEWIS Page | 16

Kapi Ngangkali Tjukurpa/Storm Cloud story 90x60cm ART3818

Langkaliki is inspired by the dramatic storms during the recent summer rains around Ernabella in the APY lands, as well as afternoons spent on art centre bush trips painting and drawing in the Ernabella Creek. Artitja Fine Art Gallery is based in South Fremantle and is open by appointment outside of our exhibition program, details of which can be found on our website. E | info@artitja.com.au T | Anna 0418 900 954 W | www.artitja.com.au Postal| PO Box 406, South Fremantle, WA 6162

LANGKALIKI LEWIS

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Langaliki is the daughter of senior artist Atipalku Intjalki and Adrian Intjalki and mother to three daughters. Her sister is the highly skilled potter Lynette Lewis. She went to school in Ernabella and then Adelaide. On returning from Adelaide she began working at the Ernabella TAFE and later the community office and then the store. She is an up and coming artist who is showing great promise in her sensitive epictions of her country on canvas. Her more recent painting themes depict powerful storm cloud story and have been widely exhibited. Storm Cloud Story 76x76cm ART419

LANGKALIKI LEWIS Page | 18

Ngayuku Ngura 100x75cm ART5020LL

This is a depiction of the artists’ country. The different colours and designs represent variations in the landscape.

MAKINTI MINUTJUKUR Page | 19

Makinti, born in 1957 is a community leader, translator and the Director of the Pitjantjatjara

Yankunytjatjara Education Committee (PYEC). Makinti is also a talented painter (in her spare time) and niece to Ernabella Arts Chair Tjunkaya Tapaya. Makinti has also played a key role in the translation of the bible into Pitjantjatjara. She is following in the footsteps of

Ernabella Creek 170x84cm ART0119MM

This is a depiction of the artists’ country. The different colours and designs represent variations in the landscape including waterholes, important ceremony sites, sanddunes and vegetation from an aerial perspective.

her father who was the chairman of the Pitjantjatjara Bible Translation Project for many years. Makinti is also a skilled singer and member of the Ernabella choir. Most recently the choir performed at WOMAdelaide

RHODA TJITAYI Page | 20

Rhoda was born in Ernabella in 1969 and raised between Fregon and Ernabella. She went to primary school in Ernabella and high school in Adelaide. She has two grown‐ up sons, a school‐aged daughter and one newborn grandson. She first started painting at Kaltiji Arts in Fregon and later began as an Ernabella Arts painter and then as a ceramicist. Rhoda also works on the Women's Project for APY land management. Her artwork depicts both her mother's and father's country.

Ngayuku Ngura 100x100cm ART66914RT

Rhoda paints aspects of her country from a mapping/aerial perspective outlining the waterholes, sand dunes, riverbeds and campsites.

RUPERT JACK Page | 21

Maku Maku 144x90cm ART56218

From a tjukurpa (Dreaming) near Mimili. Long time ago people came here. When the maku (witchetty grub) was finished people singing the maku to make them come back. Singing and scattering leaves to make the maku come out of the ground. Artitja Fine Art Gallery is based in South Fremantle and is open by appointment outside of our exhibition program, details of which can be found on our website. E | info@artitja.com.au T | Anna 0418 900 954 W | www.artitja.com.au Postal| PO Box 406, South Fremantle, WA 6162

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RUPERT JACK I was born in Mimili in 1951. I was still a little baby when I moved to Kenmore with my Father and Mother. My father worked for whitefellas digging wells and anything else. I stayed in Kenmore until I was a man. Then I moved to Ernabella for marriage. I have been a priest for over twenty years. I spent a long time travelling around, everywhere, Western Australia, Northern Territory, working for the church. Talking and singing, Inma. I still know traditional Tjukurpa. These are good stories for Anangu. They show you how to look after people.

TJARIYA (NUNGALKA) STANLEY Tjariya Stanley is a Pitjantjatjara woman born in Wingellina in 1939. She is a Ngankari (traditional healer) and holds traditional knowledge strong. Tjariya is a stalwart of the community and the heart of the art centre. She keeps culture strong and is an excellent storyteller, delighting in telling stories of when she was a young girl growing up at the mission. She has also told the sad stories relating her personal experience of the atomic bomb testings at Maralinga and its effects on the Ernabella community. This was incorporated into the Ngapartji Ngapartji theatre production which toured Australia for over a year.

Stoneware : Minyma Kutjara ‐ left 30x24x8cm right 37x28x9cm

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TJULYATA KULYURU Page | 24

Tjukula/Waterholes 76x76cm ART10120TK

For the Pitjantjatjara people living in the desert, knowledge of their water sources was critical to their survival. This resulted in an intimate understanding of the landscape which continues today. Deep familiarity with the topography of their country and the way rain would interact with the land ensured constant sources of water could be found. ‘Tjukula’ means rock holes, which are found with surprising frequency in the Musgrave ranges. Between visits, Anangu (people) would use rocks and spinifex construction to guard these from spoilage by animals and particularly in more recent times, from feral and stock animals, cattle, camels, horses and donkeys. Artitja Fine Art Gallery is based in South Fremantle and is open by appointment outside of our exhibition program, details of which can be found on our website. E | info@artitja.com.au T | Anna 0418 900 954 W | www.artitja.com.au Postal| PO Box 406, South Fremantle, WA 6162

Tjulyata Kulyuru

Tjulyata is an early career artist born in 1978 who comes from a

family of artists. Her mother was a senior artist at Ernabella from the mission days and exceled in hand spinning sheep’s wool and creating knitted and crocheted fashion. Her two older sisters are acclaimed artists Amanda Kulyuru and Unurupa Kulyuru. Her father is the Ernabella pastor Graham Kulyuru. Tjulyata paints a very important story about Tjukula (waterholes). For the Pitjantjatjara people living in the desert, knowledge of their water sources was critical to their survival. This resulted in an intimate understanding of the landscape which continues today. Deep familiarity with the topography of their country and the way rain would interact with the land

ensured constant sources of water could be found.

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TJUTJUNA

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Emu Dreaming 122x84cm ART58516TA

Tjutjuna, born 1964 went to work at Ernabella Arts in 2011 for the inaugural Wati workshop in the ceramics studio. For many years Tjutjuna has worked for APY as the Mining Liaison Officer. His late father, Andy Tjilari is a well known Ngangkari (healer) who has worked for NPY Women’s Council for a long time. His wife, Tjimpuna Williams is one of Ernabella’s most famous ceramic artists and together they undertook a ceramic residency in Singapore in late 2014. Tjutjuna’s mothers and grandmother’s country is near Kanpi in the western APY lands. It is the country of the emu, meaning the emu or kalaya is the creation being that formed that part of the country. This is the story which Tjutjuna tells in his work.

This is Tjutjuna’s father’s country near Watarru in the southern APY lands – it is also the country of the emu, meaning the emu or kalaya is the creation being that formed the land of this country. Artitja Fine Art Gallery is based in South Fremantle and is open by appointment outside of our exhibition program, details of which can be found on our website. E | info@artitja.com.au T | Anna 0418 900 954 W | www.artitja.com.au Postal| PO Box 406, South Fremantle, WA 6162

UMATJI TJITAYI Page | 27

Umatji is an emerging Ernabella painter. She has spent the past twenty years as a primary school teacher at Ernabella Anangu School. Umatji's mother, Angkuna was the first teacher Pitjantjatjara teacher at the Ernabella Mission in the 1950s. Her two daughters, Katrina and Umatji also took to the profession and on retirement joined the art centre.

Kaliny‐Kaliny | Honey Grevillia 100x80cm ART12320UT

Stories are told of the Kaliny‐kaliny or Honey Grevillea flower which is a favourite bush food of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara (people) Ultukunpa grows in the sandy soils on the plains. The flowers can be picked and placed in a billy can of water to create ‘honeywater’ (cordial) or they can be sucked for their sweet honey dew.

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Artitja Fine Art Gallery is based in South Fremantle and is open by appointment outside our exhibition program. In it’s 16th year, Artitja Fine Art Gallery holds up to six exhibitions a year in gallery exhibition spaces, details of which can be found on our website. At all other times we are open by appointment. Specialising in Australian Aboriginal art, Artitja Fine Art Gallery partners with remote art centre communities from Western Australia, Northern Territory and South Australia’s APY Lands in bringing the art to the city. This unique business model allows for a personalised and informative approach to viewing and collecting art in a relaxed and welcoming environment. Making the gallery visit comfortable and accessible is a priority for the Directors. Anna Kanaris and Arthur Clarke whose dictum is “Making Cultural Connections through Art”. If you would like prices and high resolution images of particular works you may be interested in, please contact us. All enquiries are welcome to Anna at anna@artitja.com.au or call 0418 900 954. The exhibition can also be viewed online Please visit our website www.artitja.com.au © All rights reserved. The information in this online exhibition remains with Artitja Fine Art Gallery, the artist and Ernabella Arts. There is to be strictly no reproduction of any of the material herein without written permission