The Minyma Kutjara Art Show July 2012

Ngaanyatjarra Media have invited us to be apart of their new monthly Arts Radio Show showcasing arts centres across the Ngaanyatjarra Lands. In this month's show we interview our local artist, Emily Gorey. Also, listen to Nare and Sadie report on our children's program.

Artist Profile - Tjawina Roberts

Tjawina Roberts, a Pitjantjatjara artist, was born around 1940 at Kata Yurlu near Blackstone. After her mother died, Tjawina, her sister Karrika Belle Davidson and brother Tjuruparu Watson were brought to the Warburton mission by her family. There she learnt prayers, hymns and Bible stories; to read and write; and to sew and do work in the garden and kitchen. She was also introduced to drawing materials such as pencils, inks, crayons and chalk. During the holidays, especially over the early summer period when rockholes were full of water, Tjawina left the mission with her family to walk back to her country. She was taught how to survive in the desert and the tjukurpa by the minima pampa (old woman). 

 

Many members of her extended family settled at Patinintjarra, near to where Papulankutja (Blackstone) was later established in the 1980s. When she left school Tjawina moved to Patinintjarra and camped at the edge of the mining camp with other anangu. She spent some time at the government settlement at Musgrove Park, now the community at Amata, married, and had three children Jocelyn, Dino and Renita. Tjawina, her husband and tjitji traveled to Irrunytju where they lived in the camp near the small nickel and chrysoprase mine. Tjawina’s husband worked at the mine for food rations. To supplement the rations and bushfood that they hunted and gathered, Tjawina made punu and traded them for butter, jam and tinned food at the miners shop. Tjawina lives in Irrunytju with her children and grandchildren and extended members of the family. She was a member of the Irrunytju Arts Advisory Committee and Irrunytju Community council. She is a powerful speaker and a great advocate for the art centre and community.

  
Tjawina still carves punu artefacts which she now trades with the regional cooperative Maraku Arts and Crafts and weaves fine, perfectly shaped tjanpi baskets with spinifex, natural and dyed raffia. In her paintings Tjawina engages with ancient tjukurpa as well as contemporary issues. 

Artist Profile - Renae Fox

Renae was born in 1986. She grew up in Pipalyatjara and now live in Wingellina with her family. She is the daughter of Yangi Yangi Fox, a respected elder in Pipalyatjara. Despite her young age she has exhibited extensively across Australia since she was 21.

Artist Profile - Prudence Nelson

Prudence Anderson, an emerging artist belonging to the Pitjantjatjara language and cultural group, was born in 1988 at Kalgoorlie Hospital and has grown up in Irrunytju.

Prudence's grandfather was a famous Irrunytju painter and strong elder in the Irrunytju community. Her mother, Maisie Nelson and aunty, Maureen Nelson are also painters and they paint together at The Minyma Kutjara Art Centre in Wingellina.

 

Artist Profile - Diane Dawson

Diane was born in 1972 in Amata and is the daughter of two famous Irrunytju painters, her mother Alkawari Dawson and her father Nyakul Dawson who travelled to Paris with his work in 2005.

In 2013, Diane was selected for "Revealed", an exhibition of works by WA’s best emerging Aboriginal artists presented by the Department of Culture and the Arts, with the support of the Office for the Arts and Central Institute of Technology through Gallery Central.

In 2016 her paintings were exhibited at Hahndorf Academy, alongside rediscovered paintings of her mother and father in an exhibition entitled "Nganyu Initi" (Dreaming Stories). This year she has been invited back to Hahndorf as a solo artist. 

"First I didn’t know how to paint, but I’ve watched my mother how she paints. When she used to paint here, I came here like every now and then and painted some. But I just didn’t have the patience because I always thought it was boring. Ever since my parents have passed away, I had a long time to get over the sadness that was in me. Now I’ve found a way to make myself happy by paintingand having the time to just sit, think and paint. I’ve had the confidence but I didn’t know that I had it. I’m really enjoying what I’m doing right now, because it has helped me a lot. Also, I’ve got all my family and friends around me and the Minyma Kutjara Arts Centre is where I’ll always be. 

 

Diane paints everyday at The Minyma Kutjara Arts Project, often coming with her cousin and friend Nancy Young where they paint alongside each other. She is quietly spoken with an infectious giggle.  Her paintings are delicately rich in colour, provoking and passionate. 

Diane's paintings are in high demand and she loves the challenge of a commission. If you are ever sent to the principal's office at St Aloysius College  in Adelaide, Diane's painting behind her desk will keep you smiling!

Artist Profile - Delissa Ryder

Delissa was born in Alice Springs and at 21 years of age she is the youngest of the Minyma Kutjara artists. 

  

She has grown up in Irrunytju and paints at the centre alongside her mother, her aunty and her friends. She paints stories of her childhood and the landscape she grew up in as well as the stories that her mother and aunties told her growing up. In 2014 she designed the football gurnsey for the Irrunytju Dockers.

"This is the country around Irrunytju where I grew up. It is my great-grandfather’s country."

Artist Profile - Evonne Stacia Lewis

Evonne Stacia Lewis was born around 1955 in the bush hear Docker River, Northern Territory. She belongs to the Pitjantjatjara language and cultural group. Her parents were married at the church in Warbuton and as a child she spent some time there learning English, hymns and bible stories. 

Evonne has a strong aesthetic sensibility expressed through her painting, punu and tjanpi basket weaving. Her interest in colours, pattern and textiles is evident in her art practise. At one time she managed a second-hand clothing store at Irrunytju.

Evonne regulary goes on bush trips into the country with the minyma pampa (senior women) to hunt tinka (lizard) and perentie (goanna); gather bush foods and minkulpa (native tobacco); collect tjanpi (spinifex), punu (wood) and materials to make resins, linaments and organic dyes.