Journey through Culture

Presented as part of Tarnanthi: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art


Journey through Culture

Presented as part of Tarnanthi: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art


VARIOUS SPINIFEX ARTISTS (COLLABORATIVE)

Minyma Tjuta
19-323
Acrylic on Linen
Minyma Tjuta | 19-323
Acrylic on Linen
200 x 290cm | 78.7 x 114.2in
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Seven women: Dora Parker, Ivy Laidlaw, Myrtle Pennington, Ngalpingka Simms, Tracey Simms, Sophia Brown and Kanta Donnegan, have painted this Seven Sisters story, a major Western Desert Tjukurpa that traverses Spinifex Country at numerous sites. The story pertains to the creaon of the landscape and details the women’s travels as they sing inma, collect bush foods and pursue a giant python, as they are in turn pursued closely by the lustful wati Nyiru (man). Specific events in this story where the women intersect with Nyiru, form geographic and culturally important sites, many which are for women only. At Tuntunya rockhole which is Kanta Donnegan’s country she tells the story of the sisters painting their nipples getting ready for ceremony. The word for nipple is tuntun in Spinifex language. Sophia Brown painted a site called Kulyuru her grandfather’s place, where the women chase the python who forms a large hole in the rock as he escapes. A tree overlooking the canyon at Kulyuru is Nyiru, never far from the sisters. The python winds its way across the landscape of Kulyuru creating a large creek bed. At Kuru Ala in the north of Spinifex country one of the women is grabbed by Nyiru, she is later healed by her sisters in the cave. The women’s journey and sites travelled are represented by the many rockholes or roundels in this painting. Wati Nyiru is represented by his camp and spear and can be seen in numerous places across this canvas. Ivy Laidlaw has painted the women sitting in their camp, with Wati Nyiru waiting nearby, with his spear and spear thrower. Dora Parker has painted the site of Purpurnya. Ngalpingka and Tracey Simms, mother and daughter, have worked together to paint Wayiyul country close to Karilywara (Patjarr) in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands of Western Australia. It is where Ngalpingka was born and grew up living a traditional nomadic life with her family. She knows this country intimately, in both a physical and spiritual sense. The seven sisters camped at Wayiyul and Nyiru has been stalking them, camping some distance from where they stop and hiding behind his windbreak, poking his head over to take a look. The women are disturbed by his constant pursuing of them and quickly take off to camp away from him. They travel to (roundels are the sites) Karilywara, Miputjara, Tikatika, Wanarn and Yalara.

The younger women who worked on this painting continue to learn the details of this extensive story under the guidance of their senior close relatives. These women will be the bearers of this story for the following generations and express the story through painting and other contemporary art forms. The younger artists are; Tracey Simms, Dora Parker, and Sophia Brown.

Seven women: Dora Parker, Ivy Laidlaw, Myrtle Pennington, Ngalpingka Simms, Tracey Simms, Sophia Brown and Kanta Donnegan, have painted this Seven Sisters story, a major Western Desert Tjukurpa that traverses Spinifex Country at numerous sites. The story pertains to the creaon of the landscape and details the women’s travels as they sing inma, collect bush foods and pursue a giant python, as they are in turn pursued closely by the lustful wati Nyiru (man). Specific events in this story where...