Name: Angilyiya Tjapiti Mitchell
Language: Pitjantjatjara
Community: Papulankutja (Blackstone)
Biography:
Angilyiya was born in Emu Country, Blackstone Ranges near Kunmarnarra Bore, a traditional law area and important men's Dreaming site. Angilyiya is a Traditional Owner for Kuru Ala an important women's dreaming place linked to the Kungkarrangkalpa /Seven Sisters Tjukurpa /stories.
A senior artist and strong Law woman, Angilyiya has exceptional bush skills, including carving punu/wood sculptures, creating tjanpi / grass weaving and extensive knowledge of collecting and making bush medicines.
Angilyiya is a teacher and mentor in language, culture and heritage. She is frequently called upon by the local Land Management to share her knowledge of country/sites and her ability to teach ethnobotany and share Tjukurrpa (ancestral creation) stories. She says she is the ‘only one left to teach young people’.
Angilyiya has also been a keen member of NPY Women’s Council and of Tjanpi Desert Weavers (TDW), making sculptural objects, baskets and animal figures out of natural fibre, tjanpi (local grasses), raffia and wool. Angiliyiya was commissioned to contribute to major projects, including the tjanpi /grass Toyota that won first prize in the 2005 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art (NATSIA) Awards. A collective work created by 18 women from Papulankutja/Blackstone (WA) and acquired by the Museum and Art Gallery NT as part of their permanent collection. Angilyiya was also a part of Songlines: Tracking The Seven Sisters exhibition. Creating one of the flying Seven Sisters from tjanpi/ grass, for this extraordinary multi-faceted exhibition at the National Museum of Australia (NMA) 2017. The sculptures can be seen online as actual objects and have also been digitised as characters in a video. See more here https://songlines.nma.gov.au/tjanpi
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