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Kulata Tjuta – Kungkarangkalpa Freddy’s Story

Kungkarangkalpa means the Seven Sisters. This is an extensive creation story that relates to the Pleiades constellation in the southern hemisphere. The story traverses Australia taking on different forms, however Freddy’s part of the story is from his father’s country west of Atila (Mt Connor). For this part of the story a man called Nyiru is chasing the sisters as he wants to sleep with the oldest sister. All the younger sisters are deeply afraid of him. 

Nyiru makes kulata tjuta (many spears) and leaves them leaning up against a tree. When the sisters are travelling they find the spears resting there and realise that the wati kura (bad man) is nearby. They get frightened and run away. Eventually, to escape Nyiru, the sisters fly into the sky where they turn into stars and form the constellation.

Categories: Ernabella Arts Inc.

Name: Freddy Ken

Language: Pitjantjatjara

Community: Ernabella (Pukatja)

Biography:

When I was a young bloke I was working with cattle doing fencing, cattle pens, sometimes building houses, pipelines, working on the roads building the highway. I was working with dynamite and it was dangerous. I used to ride horses and sometimes bulls at the bronco rides.

I started painting in Amata. Then I went out working in land management, looking after the country. Now I’ve come back to Ernabella to be with family and I’m painting again. I paint a lot of stories, lots of dancing. My father and my grandfather told me lots of stories, for a long time we have no TV.  My country is sandhill country, it’s good country, little bit rough.

My feeling is when the picture comes I have to paint it. These are stories from my memory, and from memory come pictures.

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