220282320862

Published by CompNet Systems on

Yalka – Bush Onion

This painting shows the Yalka Dreaming (bush onion) which is situated in a place called Analy, close to Town Bore Outstation. Bush onions grow after the rain and are collected by all the women. The yalka are found underneath the surface and can be eaten raw or cooked in the hot sand next to the campfire. Paintings referring to this Dreaming show diverse motifs such as plants, leaves, seeds, layers or roots.

Yalka Tjukurrpa at Analy. Jillian’s mother and artist Anmanari Napanangka Nolan told her to start painting this story. This is the Dreaming and country of her father, Lionel Kantawarra Tjupurrula. Lionel was a Kukatja (Western Australia) man, born in 1932. He lived at Haasts Bluff in the mid 1980s and painted intermittently for Papunya Tula Artists (NT). He passed away in 1988. Lionel painted his own Yalka Tjukurrpa (Bush onion Dreaming).

Categories: Ikuntji Artists

Name: Colleen Kantawarra

Language: Luritja

Community: Haasts Bluff

Biography:

Colleen is daughter of Anmanari Napanangka Nolan, an accomplished painter and one of the most important old ladies in Haasts Bluff. Colleen's childhood in Papunya and later Haast's Bluff was filled with days of hunting for bush tucker, a motif which is now richly represented in her works. Seeking out honey ants, bush bananas, bush tomatoes, bush onions, and bush berries as a child now informs the colors and shapes of Colleen Nakamara Kantawarra's abstracted realism paintings, which suggest to the viewer a land of milk and honey, rather than the spinifex desert of our coastal understanding. Working also with traditional designs, Colleen again demonstrates the importance of bush tucker dreamings, or the many bush tucker tjukurrpas, which map the diverse varieties of edible plants and animals found in her country. Interpereting her stories, Colleen's palette is rich and energised, often surprising, contemporary and deeply honest. Growing up in a family of painters, Collen was introduced to canvas and brush at an early age, and her dedication to her art is clearly visible in her works. One of the Ikuntji Artists' Studios emerging artists Colleen Nakamara Kantawarra brings a fresh perspective to a deeply traditional artform.

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