ANTARA

antara

antara MILATJARI PUMANI KUNMANARA (KATHLEEN) INJIKI TJAPALYI NGUPULYA PUMANI

BETTY KUNTIWA PUMANI MARINA BROWN PUMANI

TUPPY NGINTJA GOODWIN PUNA YANIMA

COVER IMAGE: Ngupulya Pumani Antara, 2018 (detail) 59” x 79” (150 x 200cm) acyrlic on linen, Mimili Maku #11-18 RIGHT: The ceremonial site of Antara

“Antara is my mother’s country.

She taught me the stories, and showed me the places, like one special rockhole where women would have inma (ceremony).

Now I remember her when I paint Antara.”

(Ngupulya Pumani)

antara “Antara is my mother’s country. She taught me the stories, and showed me the places, like one special rockhole where women would have inma (ceremony).

Now I remember her when I paint Antara.” (Ngupulya Pumani) The knowledge of Antara and the skill of sharing its stories with a paintbrush run strong in the Pumani family. Ngupulya Pumani was a Wynne Prize finalist in 2017, Australia’s longest running landscape painting award. Her youngest sister Betty Kuntiwa Pumani won the prize in the same year. Betty and Ngupulya learned painting from a young age by sitting alongside their mother, the late Milatjari Pumani, Mimili Maku Arts’ best-known artist.

Antara is an important ceremonial site northwest of Mimili Community, and home to the Maku Tjukurpa (witchetty grub story). All three artists share a deep knowledge and understanding of the stories of Antara. This Tjukurpa has been passed through uncountable generations through inma (song and dance).

Today, a handful of senior artists at Mimili Maku Arts have found their unique visual language to express the importance of Antara. Ngupulya Pumani, Puna Yanima, Tuppy Goodwin, Betty Kuntiwa Pumani and Marina Pumani Brown paint alongside each other in memory of their mother and auntie Milatjari Pumani and Kunmanara (Kathleen) Injiki Tjapalyi, who shared the cultural knowledge of Antara with them.

Kunmanara was Milatjari’s cousin. As one of Mimili Maku Arts’ founding members she was committed to passing on her knowledge to the next generation. She would frequently go on bush trips with the younger artists and children. Tuppy, who moved to Mimili at a young age, and Puna, who grew up in the neighbouring community of Indulkana, remember traveling to Antara with her.

The oldest of five siblings, Ngupulya is currently Mimili Maku’s director and chairperson. Her painting style resonates strongly with her mother’s; the connection is fathomable. Betty, her youngest sibling, has developed a very different visual language. In her work, pulsating reds contrast with subtle tonal shifts of white to create an overall fluidity. Her daughter Marina catapults the stories of her ancestors into a highly contemporary space, not shying away from the use of negative space and working with a strong but reduced palette. Puna uses the immediacy of ink for particularly dynamic paintings, and Tuppy works with bold brush painting and a loose style to make her paintings sing.

Ngupulya: Auntie Kunmanara would take all the kids to Antara to show them the stories. They would paint and

sing and dance. I have most of my knowledge from her, and of course my mother.

Tuppy: Yes, even though I came from a different community and different family, Kunmanara would take me

along, when I was a little girl and I could watch inma (song and dance). Today, I also teach my daughters and

granddaughters what Maku Tjurkurpa means.

Puna: For me it was the same. I grew up in Indulkana, but I learned lots about Antara from Milatjari and Kun-

manara. I talk about the kapi tjukula (rock holes) amongst the apu and murpu (rocks and mountains). I like to use ink as well, it’s like the kapi (water) flowing through ngura (country).

Ngupulya: I remember my mother telling me the story of how they would go out to Antara. My grandfather

would hunt for malu (kangaroo), and she would collect bush tucker with my grandmother. That’s where she learned about the Maku Tjukurpa.

Tuppy: I learned traveling through country, too. There is a special rock hole at Antara where women perform

inma – inmaku pakani. I paint a story that happened around there. I often sing to my canvas, too.

Marina: I paint kutjupa way (different), but it’s the same story. We paint and talk about it with each other. My

auntie and my mum have shown Tjukurpa to me, and I am still learning new stories.

Ngupulya: Let me tell you this story. Kungka Kutjara ananyi tjukula. A long time ago two women went to Apu

Katu, to the hill around Antara. They were singing inma (song) and hitting the rock with a punu (stick). Maku tjuta (a lot of witchetty grubs) came from the tree we call Maku Ilykuwara (Witchetty Bush). Maku wiyaringkunyangka Iriti tjana angkupai Antarala apu katu munuya inma ingkara piti panya kilinara apunngku. Atura wiyaringkula angkupai ngura kutu munu tjintu mangkur nguru angkula nyakupai maku wingki mulapa. When there is no maku around Antara the women would climb up the rocks and perform a ceremony. They would sing inma and throw rocks down the cliff. They would clean out the rockholes, and wait for them to be filled with water. Later, in couple of days they would dig for maku and find plenty.

Ngupulya, Puna, Tuppy, Betty and Marina live in Mimili Community, home to 300 Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people who have been living in the area for millennia in harmony with nature and acting as custodians of the land and the Tjukurpa. They still go to the kapi tjukula around Antara and sing inma for maku tjuta. Mimili was formerly known as Everard Park, which was a cattle station that was returned to Aboriginal ownership through the 1981 AP Lands Act. Mimili Community was incorporated as an Aboriginal Community in 1975.

Harvey Art Projects gratefully acknowledges Mimili Maku Arts Manager Anna Wattler and the extraordinary women (both past and present) in mounting this special exhibit honouring the mothers, sisters, aunties and granddaughters of Mimili Maku Arts.

Milatjari Pumani Ngura Walytja, Antara 2012, 35� x 35� (90 x 90cm) acrylic on linen, Mimili Maku #455-12

Milatjari Pumani Ngura Walytja, Antara 2012 (detail) 59� x 42� (152 x 106cm) acrylic on linen, Mimili Maku #358-12

Kunmanara (Kathleen) Injiki Tjapalyi Piritipalawa - Pretty Flower, 44” x 36”(111 x 91cm) acrylic on linen, Mimili Maku #144-15

Kunmanara (Kathleen) Injiki Tjapalyi Antara Traveling, 42.5’ x 23.5” (120 x 60cm) acrylic on linen, Mimili Maku #201-14

Tuppy Ningtja Goodwin Antara, 2017 59” x 79”(200 x 150cm) acrylic on Belgian linen Mimili Maku #603-17

Marina Pumani Brown Ngayuku Ngura (My home), 2018 79” x 48”(198 x 122cm) acrylic on linen Mimili Maku #85-18

Betty Kuntiwa Pumani, Antara 2017 (detail) 48� x 72�(122 x 183cm) acrylic on linen, Mimili Maku #662-17

Puna Yanima, Antara 2017 (detail) 79� x 59�(200 x 150cm) acrylic on linen, Mimili Maku #653-17

Ngulpulya Pumani Antara 2018 60” x 72” (152 x 172cm) acrylic on linen Mimili Maku #11-18

On view until September 5th 2018 info@harveyartprojects.com | Phone (208) 309-8676 Back cover: Ngupulya Pumani (photo: Jackson Lee) All other mages courtesy Mimili Maku Arts Copyright 2018 Harvey Art Projects USA