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Bush Fire

On weekend we went to Amata and we was traveling and we pull up and saw bush fire. Family get up and see all the fire burning, shouting, and some people are coming that way and they saw the bush fire burning and they get up on top of the car and shouting again, ‘Waru!’ (Fire!). Then we went back home to homeland, Cave Hill. some people going back to Pukatja (Ernabella) and other people going back to Amata. Nighttime, the sun go down, sunset is nice. Bush fire, it had been a hot day. We were travelling in the afternoon, we came back from Pukatja where we was watching the football and saw the fire. Long time (ago). 

Categories: Tangentyere Artists

Name: Elizabeth Douglas

Language: Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara

Community: Alice Springs

Biography:

Elizabeth was born in Alice Springs. Her mother was a member of the Douglas family from Indulkana (Yankunytjatjara side), and her father's father was an Afghan cameleer who married an Arrernte woman. Their son was Elizabeth's father Musty Syddick, who was born at Hermannsburg Mission, where her grandfather Syddick (or Sedeek) Khan worked for a while as a cameleer. However, the couple did not stay together, so Elizabeth and her younger brother Roy Douglas were raised by the Douglas family for whom Walinynga (Cave Hill) is the Homeland, along with elder cousin brother, Stanley Douglas. The family moved a great deal as the parents worked in various jobs in Alice Springs and then on pastoral stations and in various communities including Amata, where Elizabeth lived for a long time as a child.

Elizabeth married up in Port Augusta then came back to Alice Springs to spend time with Musty Syddick, her biological father. She then returned to Amata. She has a daughter living in Adelaide and has three granddaughters and four grandsons, all in Adelaide. She has a son, also in Alice Springs, but her brother raised him for Elizabeth. 

Elizabeth learned to paint while living in Mutitjulu, where she painted the Seven Sisters Tjukurpa associated with the Douglas family’s site, Walinynga. But once her partner passed away, she moved back to Alice Springs and has been painting alongside her 'sister from one father', Tangentyere Artists' Marjorie Williams. Both women were acknowledged by Musty Syddick as his daughters, although their mothers were different.

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