Mangarta or Bush tomato (lower left) and Wayanu or bush plum, bush peach or Quandong, along the edge. They growing amongst different bush flowers. Always go looking for them with family during their season. Everyone’s got their favourite places. I showed my family where to go get them out bush (near homelands). Spring is good season for them.
Name: Nyinta Donald
Language: Arrernte, Luritja, Pitjantjara
Community: Alice Springs
Biography:
Nyinta Donald was born on Angas Downs Station in the summer of 1946. Her father Barney Donald, whose Pitjantjatjara name was Poyajilbi, was a Tjungarrayi man from Punritjanta (Bloods Range) the northern side of the Petermann Ranges, Northern Territory. Her mother Awiterri, was from Kaanpi, south of the Mann Ranges, South Australia. Her parents met at Kaltukatjara (Docker River) and then moved to Angas Downs Station, where Poyajilbi worked bringing harvested salt to Alice Springs on camel caravans. Her mother raised up three sons, as well as Nyinta, but during severe drought, like many other families from this region, the family moved to Areyonga Government Reserve administered by the Lutheran Mission.
Nyinta lived at Areyonga for many years, marrying a fellow resident Freddie Peipei (now deceased). They had three sons, who are all grown. Nyinta worked at the Areyonga primary school as a bilingual educator for a long time. Nyinta has also painted for a long time, including for the former Ngurratjuta Art Centre. A member of the Alice Springs Lutheran Church and its Mission Block Choir, Her work is often informed by her spiritual beliefs and involvement with the church community.
Nyinta's work is held by the Art Gallery of South Australia, Artbank and in the Slattery Collection. Last year, she was a Sulman finalist with her work 'Our Aboriginal Women's Choir' and a finalist in the 2023 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Art Award. She was winner of the Stories Prize in the Advocate Art Award (2021), highly commended in the Macquarie Emerging Artist Prize (2019), and finalist in the Vincent Lingiari Art Award (2021) and Blake Prize for Religious Art (2018).
Honey Ants This painting is about women digging for Honey Ants. They are sweet as sweet… but hard work to reach. People call them all sorts – Yerrampe, Tjupi, Agkwarle, Tjala… all one thing!
Kwerlpe Tjukurrpa This painting is about a Arrernte Wati [man] meeting an Arrernte mother and her daughters. The mother asks the Wati if he wants to marry her daughters because they are the right skin for Read more…
Tjintjantji to Murinji This painting shows a snake travelling from Tjitjantji to Murinji. Tjitjantji (concentric circle at the tail of the snake) is west of Kintore and there is a big hole there, lots of Read more…