![Australian Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) artwork by ANGKALIYA CURTIS of Tjungu Palya Artists. The title is Billynya. [PB9-39/40] (Silkscreen Print - Edition of 40)](https://media.redotgallery.com/stockroom/gallery/b/billynya-4477.jpg)
ANGKALIYA CURTIS
Billynya
PB9-39/40
Silkscreen Print - Edition of 40
59 x 84cm | 23.23 x 33.07in
Tjungu Palya Artists
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Angkaliya Curtis was born in 1928 at Miti in the South Australian Pitjantjatjara Lands. When she was younger, she travelled with her mother to Watarru (her mother’s country). The family spent time at Ernabella mission and cattle station properties exchanging animal skins (dingoes and rabbits) for flour and sugar. She lived a semi nomadic lifestyle, often walking long distances in the desert where traditional knowledge of the country, its water holes and food supplies are vital to survival. She learned from her mother and grandmother the secrets of the land and acquired an intimate understanding of the environment and the ancestral creation stories associated with it. She was well-versed with food gathering and has a wealth of knowledge about medicinal plants. She learned what seeds to collect to grind to a flour to make into small cakes cooked in the hot ashes from the fire. She made wiltjas (simple dwellings - shade structures from branches), yuu (windbreaks), and carved utensils from local trees such as wana (wooden digging stick) and piti (collecting bowls). She read the desert sands for tracks and hunted small animals. She spun hair on a handmade spindle for ceremonial belts and manguri (woven head ring).
Angkaliya married and lived at the Ernabella where she worked in the craft room spinning wool and making rugs. In the 1960s, she moved closer to her traditional homeland when the community of Amata began. Today she lives and works at Nyapari Community.
Art and craft remains important to Angkaliya and she maintains a prolific weaving and artefact production. Her camp is scattered with discarded raffia and spinifex from the tjanpi baskets she has made. These textured baskets and wooden carvings are distinctive in their unique quirkiness a quality she also brings to her paintings, which have a naïve quality, illustrating animals, plants and people drawn with finely detailed line work. The representation of rockholes, creeks and other topographical elements are interspersed with people and animals going about their daily activities.
Angkaliya Curtis was born in 1928 at Miti in the South Australian Pitjantjatjara Lands. When she was younger, she travelled with her mother to Watarru (her mother’s country). The family spent time at Ernabella mission and cattle station properties exchanging animal skins (dingoes and rabbits) for flour and sugar. She lived a semi nomadic lifestyle, often walking long distances in the desert where traditional knowledge of the country, its water holes and food supplies are vital to survival. She learned from her mother and grandmother the secrets of the land and acquired an intimate understanding of the environment and the ancestral creation stories associated with it. She was well-versed with food gathering and has a wealth of knowledge about medicinal plants. She learned what seeds to collect to grind to a flour to make into small cakes cooked in the hot ashes from the fire. She made wiltjas (simple dwellings - shade structures from branches), yuu (windbreaks), and carved utensils from local trees such as wana (wooden digging stick) and piti (collecting bowls). She read the desert sands for tracks and hunted small animals. She spun hair on a handmade spindle for ceremonial belts and manguri (woven head ring).
Angkaliya married and lived at the Ernabella where she worked in the craft room spinning wool and making rugs. In the 1960s, she moved closer to her traditional homeland when the community of Amata began. Today she lives and works at Nyapari Community.
Art and craft remains important to Angkaliya and she maintains a prolific weaving and artefact production. Her camp is scattered with discarded raffia and spinifex from the tjanpi baskets she has made. These textured baskets and wooden carvings are distinctive in their unique quirkiness a quality she also brings to her paintings, which have a naïve quality, illustrating animals, plants and people drawn with finely detailed line work. The representation of rockholes, creeks and other topographical elements are interspersed with people and animals going about their daily activities.