Artist Profile - Roma Butler

Roma Nyutjangka Butler, an artist belonging to the Pitjantjatjara language and cultural group, was born in 1959 at Wilo rockhole, on the kanyala (euro kangaroo) tjukurpa track. Roma spent her early years at Ernabella mission in South Australia and then travelled by camel to Warburton in Western Australia, where she went to school and learnt to read and write. Irrunytju is her grandfather’s brother’s country. Roma works at Minyma Kutjara and with Ngaanyatjarra Media presenting a radio program of local music and news. She continues to practise traditional cultural activities including hunting and gathering bushfoods, singing and dancing inma.

 

Roma has been taught to paint and tell the stories of the tjukurpa by the minyma pampa (old women), especially Kuntjil Cooper. Roma is a powerful story-teller and her paintings focus on the drama, graphic and emotional intensity of incidents and relationships in tjukurpa narratives.