221282407244

Published by CompNet Systems on

Anapalaku Walka – Ernabella Design

The well-known Anapalaku Walka evolved out of the very first drawings that children made in the Ernabella mission school in the 1940s. The children would often come to the Ernabella craft room (the precursor to today’s art centre) in the afternoon or during school holidays, making their doodles and designs that were the inspiration for the artists who then used this motif on various craft media. The designs are based on flowers, leaves and the rich colourful arid landscape of the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. The young girls grew older and many of them joined the art centre where they developed these designs into a distinctive artistic style. The Anapalaku Walka has been used by Ernabella artists for more than 75 years on floor rugs, batik, paintings and ceramics.

Categories: Ernabella Arts Inc.

Name: Michelle Lewis

Language: Pitjantjatjara

Community: Pukatja

Biography:

Michelle was born in Ernabella in 1983, where she went to school and later worked at the Ernabella Clinic. 

Michelle is a rising star of the Ernabella Arts painting studio. Her mother is senior artist Atipalku Intjalki and her father is master punu (wood) maker Adrian Intjalki. Her sisters Langaliki and Lynette Lewis are both also very accomplished artists. Michelle began painting in 2017 and quickly developed an individual style based around her father's country at Makiri, east of Ernabella. 

In 2025 one of Michelle's paintings was animated and projected onto the facade of Parliament House in Canberra for National Reconciliation Week in May and again fro NAIDOC week in July. Michelle's was only the third painting to have been illuminated onto Parliament House.

Michelle and her partner Dale Richards, who is a punu artist, have three children and they live in Ernabella.

Related Posts

Ernabella Arts Inc.

221282407328

Ngayuku Walka / My Design Walka means design or pattern. Artists use this title to describe artworks that are pattern based rather than descriptive or telling a story.

Ernabella Arts Inc.

221282407247

Ngayuku Walka / My Design Walka means design or pattern. Artists use this title to describe artworks that are pattern based rather than descriptive or telling a story.

Ernabella Arts Inc.

221282407343

Ngayuku Walka / My Design Walka means design or pattern. Artists use this title to describe artworks that are pattern based rather than descriptive or telling a story.

© the artist / art centre