![Australian Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) artwork by VARIOUS SPINIFEX ARTISTS (COLLABORATIVE) of Spinifex Artists. The title is Minyma Tjuta. [13198] (Acrylic on Linen)](https://media.redotgallery.com/stockroom/gallery/m/artwork/v/minyma-tjuta-3912-LARGE-5.webp)
VARIOUS SPINIFEX ARTISTS (COLLABORATIVE)
Minyma Tjuta13198 (2013)
Acrylic on Linen
Minyma Tjuta | 13198
Acrylic on Linen
233 x 197cm | 91.73 x 77.56in
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Seven senior Spinifex women, Kunmanara (Linda) Coleman, Kathleen (Kanta) Donnegan, Kunmanara (Anne Ngantiri) Hogan, Estelle Hogan, Myrtle Pennington, Kunmanara (Yarangka Elaine) Thomas and Tjaruwa (Angelina) Woods, have collaborated on this major work, an epic story which covers a vast tract of Spinifex Lands. It is the Kungkarangkalpa Tjukurpa (Seven Sisters), also referred to as Minyma Tjuta. Minyma Tjuta is perhaps the most substantial and overtly women’s Tjukurpa from the Spinifex area that weaves across and through much of the country, profoundly affecting the sites, ceremonial connections and responsibilities of the people. The song line travels out west and east far beyond the Spinifex territory into neighbouring lands. As such, Minyma Tjuta is intimate to the cultural cycles of the broader Western Desert region and features prominently in many Spinifex paintings as it traverses far across and through the country. This is miil-miilpa (sacred) and has numerous layers of knowledge and comprehension available depending on the status of the viewer according to Anangu Law.
In this Tjukurpa, a group of sisters are travelling and pursuing a large python which proves to be elusive and is followed through various important sites such as Kuru Ala and Kulyuru. The snake leaves in its wake several significant landforms such as deep ravines at Kulyuru where it escaped down a hole in the escarpment and heading north creating a large creek bed. The women are in turn being pursued by a lustful old man who wants Kampukura the eldest sister for a wife. He camps close to the sisters hiding and spying on them in order to strike out in surprise and catch the one he wants. The sisters take off to the east. They fly up into the sky thus creating the constellation known as Pleiades. This story is full of sexual innuendo pertinent to women and men in different aspects. It is present at literally hundreds of Spinifex sites. The women listed some of such sites in this work including Tjulapi, Tjawanya, Tjutjunga, Tolunga, Paltatatjara, Atinga, Pilkatja, Makuritjara, Ngalkuritjara, Pukara, Kuru Ala and Kulyuru.