Kungka Kunpu / Strong Women

Artists
8 Indigenous Women
Exhibition
Kungka Kunpu
Year
June 23- July 22, 2018

Kungka Kunpu / Strong Women brings together 8 of Iwantja Arts’ women artists in a powerhouse show to celebrate ‘NAIDOC 2018: Because of Her, We Can.’

Artists Julie Yatjitja, Betty Muffler, Emily Cullinan, Betty Chimney, Raylene Walatinna, Kerry Anne Robinson, Rene Sundown and Maisie King have created large scale acrylic paintings, some collaborative, that depict the colours and culture of their country, in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in far north east South Australia.

Mother and daughter Betty Chimney and Raylene Walatinna’s collaborative painting is evocative of the vast and rugged desert country of Indulkana on the Eastern side of the APY Lands. Betty and Raylene mark out the rugged and stoic country of Indulkana; together they map out the creeks, roads, rocks and dry creek-beds, highlighting changes in the landscapes through colour shifts.

Betty Muffler, winner of the NATSIAA Emerging Artist Award 2017, presents one of her Ngangkari Ngura (Healing Country) paintings, that tells of her work as a healer, providing support to Anangu with her Ngangkari practice.

Julie Yatjitja’s exuberant use of paint captures the energy and power of country where the Iwantja Tjukitji (Iwantja Soakage) is located, and which holds the story of the Tjurki (native owl).
A suite of paintings by Emily Cullinan trace her many journeys between Indulkana and Mimili, passing iconic waterholes, majestic boulders and river beds, depicted in bold, vibrant gestures and forms: “I know this country, like the way the old people that passed away before us knew it.”

Kerry Ann Robinson paints the colours and shapes of the corrugated desert country. Her paintings take on a rhythm which suggests both a physical landscape and an internal sanctuary. The lines of sun-hardened creek beds and hidden tracks through scrubland are vigorously laid out across the canvas, creating a sense of action painting which connects to a memory or experience of the dynamic and powerful land of the Yankunytjatjara people.

Ngayuku Ngura by Rene Sundown recreates the artist’s memories of the long walks she would take along the sandhills and the salty river water near Erldunda Station as a child.

Maisie King says of her delicate, linear paintings:

This is my artwork, this is Oodnadatta country. This is where I was born. The country there is beautiful and very good. The land is very old and the stories there are strong. This is Yankunytjatjara country.

— Maisie King.