MInyma Kutjara recieves $12,000 grant!

We are very excited to announce just we have just received notification that our application to the Department of Culture and the Arts for an Indigenous Arts Grant has been successful! We have been awarded a $12,000 grant for our "Kapi Ungkupayi" Project.

In January 2013 five senior anagnu women from The Minyma Kutjara Arts Project in Irrunytju and Papulankutja Arts in Blackstone went out bush looking for punu (wood for carving) and ran out of petrol. They had no water or food and weren’t found for five days. They survived on five perentie (goanna) and water their dug for along a dry riverbed.

We will be working together with Papulankutja Artists, Ngaanyatjarra Media and The Tjanpi Desert Weavers to create a unique exhibition, a strong visual and sensory experience where people can feel, smell, touch, taste. An exhibition using a wide range of multi-arts including painting, punu, tjanpi, sound recording and film. A very raw and earthy experience that touches all your senses: to feel fear, to smell bush, to touch grass and to see though the eyes  of an anagnu woman.

This is our modern day Minyma Kutjara story.

Minyma Kutjara on NITV!

Ngaanyatjarra Media has produced a documentary called "The Language of Art" about The Minyma Kutjara Arts Project that is now screening on NITV!
 

Language of Art Vimeo from Ngaanyatjarra Media on Vimeo.

In April, 2013 the NITV REGIONAL, REMOTE & EMERGING INITIATIVE was launched providing an opportunity for emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander filmmakers and Media Organisations to show us stories form their communities and show our audience a slice of life from our communities around Australia. Two months later, we want to share the results: 15 minutes of new Indigenous content, six days a week for 20 weeks, on our screen.  

A landmark television initiative of mini documentaries broadcasted on NITV weeknights from 6.30pm and on weekends at 7:00pm. Creating digital song-lines to share stories of our life, our history, our elders, our communities, our events, our youth and our cultures.

A face lift for Ngaanyatjarra Media's film studio!

 

Minyma Kutjara Artists Rene Nelson, Roma Butler and Ivy Laidlaw have just finished installing their three large canvases for the new look Ngaanyatjarra Media Film Studio.

"The painting capture the stories and history of the NG lands and inspire creativity inside the film studio!" - Phillip Williams NG Meida  Film/TV Coordinator.

Minyma Kutjara @ Maraku Arts

Minyma Kutjara are excited to be now represented by Maruku @ Uluru.  So... next time you're visiting Ayres Rock(!) drop into the Maruku Gallery and Retail Store in the Cultural Centre at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, NT.

http://www.maruku.com.au/
 
Artists we have represented this month are: Ivy Laidlaw, Eva Baker, Alison Watson, Heather Watson, Maisie Nelson, Prudence Anderson, Delissa Ryder, Nancy Young, Evonne Lewis, Yaritji Heffernan Norma Byrant and Roma Butler.

Paintings pictured by Roma Butler (left) and Heather Watson (right)

Desert Mob 2013

 

The Minyma Kutjara Artists were buzzing this year at Desert Mob after re-joining Desart in July, back in the family!

More photos on our facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/minyma.arts

To view the exhibition online go to:

http://www.desart.com.au/galleries/category/desertmob/

Pukulpa - Happy Pants!

At The Minyma Kutjara Arts Project we are busy working on a new enterprise called "Pukulpa", meaning HAPPY!

Our artists are creating a range of hand painted one-off designer jeans. This means that no one will have a pair exactly the same as yours!

The jeans will be available from December and will be exhibited as part of our residency at The Desert Oak Studio, Ayers Rock Resort.

To keep up to date on all the development of this exciting project, like us on our new PUKULPA FACEBOOK page!

To pre-order your own pair email us at: pukulpa@gmail.com

New Irrunytju T-shirts & Postcards

Check out our new t-shirts and postcards designed by Minyma Kutjara artist Roma Butler. Order yours now by emailing us at minyma.kutjara@gmail.com
 
Postcards $1 each Tshirts $25 each plus postage and packaging.

Desart Members!

We are excited to announce that we are now members of Desart! We are looking forward to working with them as we grow as an art and can't wait for Desert Mob, their annual festival in Alice Springs in September.

How to make your own belt?!

 

Monday last week may have been a public holiday, but it was a busy day in our art centre. Leslie and Rick Allen (Ng Council, Dept of Development & Training) came to teach us all about leather making.

The really exciting thing about this day was that it was the first time since we have been re-opened that the young men in Irrunytju have worked in our art centre. We hope they will come again!

Everyone who participated in the one day workshop learnt hand stitching techniques and by the end of the day had made a belt for themselves. We are very thankful to our CDEP Trainer, Chris Pickering for organizing this day and look forward to Rick and Leslie coming later in the year for more workshops. 

Pottery Week!

For the last two weeks we have been enjoying the company of Adelaide-based ceramic artist, Sunshine March. She has been teaching us about simple pottery techniques for making wira (bowls). Everyone had a go! We made a pit fire for firing our wira but we are also going to enjoy it on cold desert days!!

More photos on our "What's on" page.

Artist Profile - Coralie Peterman

 

Coralie Peterman is an artist belonging to the Pitjantjatjara language and cultural group. She was born in 1965 at Mt Davis, near Piplaytjarra SA.  Coralie grew up here in Irrunytju where she remembers going out hunting and for picnics with her family.

"We always go hunting, walking around and looking around for rabbits and goanna out bush...over that way. We went, my mother and father and all our family so we could have a good feed. We would camp for the night or two nights then come back home here to Irrunytju. All the white fellas were over there at the mine and we didn't know what they were doing."

She comes to the art centre with her daughter Noelene and her three grandchildren - Deandra, Bernadette and Anna and they all paint together.

Fingers and Petals - The Handmade Flower Show

Our very own Ivy Laidlaw, Evonne Lewis and Cynthia Bourke are flying to Perth tomorrow to represent The Tjanpi Desert Weavers at "Fingers and Petals - The Handmade Flower Show". As well as their work being exhibited they will be running flower making workshops on Saturday and Sunday (Click on flyer above to see times and locations). If you are in Perth be sure to go and find them!

Evonne Lewis, Cynthia Burke and Ivy Laidlaw

Artist Profile - Inyika O'Toole

 

Inyika was born at Angus Downs near Watarrka. She moved around a lot in her childhood life, living with her parents in Pipalyatjara area between the ages of 6-7 years. Later they went to Ernabella and travelled to Areyonga, back and forth. She would sit down with her parents and watch them how they do painting, artifacts, wood carving, beading and other craft. She was also taught how to collect bush food and hunting.

She worked at the Learning Centre in Ernabella, doing sewing and she even did a bit of work at the child care.

As her children grew up as adults, she did artifacts like punu wood carving. but she never stopped working. She worked for the DASSA, which was based in Amata SA.

Artist Profile - Heather Watson

Heather Watson was born in 1967 in the bush at Iliwangu Illiwangu near Armata, South Australia.

“That place of Wati Ngintaka Tjukurpa (Goanna Man Dreaming) that’s where I was born. There was no nurse and we had no car. Just my mother and father. They walked with me to Ernabella when I was a tiny tiny baby.”

She tells the stories of Minyma Kutjara (the two sisters) and the journey they made through her grandmother’s country Kuru Ala.

New Bins for Irrunytju!

It's school holidays in Irrunytju and our Enviromental Health Support Worker, Ron Barker has our kids busy painting new garbage bins for our community for a new clean up Irrunytju program. The bins say "Ngura Wiru Kanyyinma" (Protect our Land). The kids have painted them super bright colours and hope they will remind everyone to put their rubbish in the bins!