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Donkeys all around Chambers Pillar

‘All the donkey in that desert Country south of Titjikala. Those three circles are Chambers Pillar, Castle Rock, and her poor mother trailing behind. We call Chambers Pillar Iterrkewarre [pronounced it-turk-kar-wara]. He’s knob-tailed gecko man. He came up from Finke River [down south] and travels all over the area before his family banished him for marrying up a girl. But she’s his mother-in-law. That’s against our Law.’

Following his banishment, the couple retreated into the desert, Iterrkewarre raging in fury, the girl facing away from him in deep shame. Among the dunes they rested and turned into prominent rocky formations – Iterrkewarre into the Pillar, the girl into Castle Rock. They are trailed by the girl’s mother, known as Window Rock.



Dimensions: 660 x 1170 mm

Categories: Tangentyere Artists

Name: D. Kumunara Thomas

Language: Pitjantjatjara, Luritja

Community: Alice Springs

Biography:

Mrs Thomas was born Arlyetilhe, and grew up at Deep Well Station (Allumba Atunta) south of Alice Springs, and her Tjukurrpa is Pigeon Rockhole in James Range on Deep Well Station. Her mother, Ngwi Ngwi was a Luritja woman from Kaltukatjara [Docker River] way, and her father, Namu called Tommy Shadrach was from Papunya, long before it was made a government reserve in 1960. Her parents both worked at Deep Well Station. Thomas’ whole family then moved to the burgeoning excision on Maryvale Station around Frances Well, that eventually became the Titjikala Community. Her father, Old Tommy, was in charge of camels and donkeys, transporting people and goods between the railway siding, the cattle station and the emerging Aboriginal community. Thomas travelled to Darwin to study and met her husband, with whom she had two children. She is also a grandmother. Working through Tapatjatjaka Art Centre at Titjikala, Thomas has experience using many media - fabric painting, carving, pottery and painting. She has also painted with Ngurratjuta Iltja Ntjarra Art Centre, having a solo exhibition at that time. Eventually, living permanently in Alice Springs as a renal patient, Thomas joined Tangentyere Artists in 2010. Thomas paints rich landscapes of the Country in which she has lived her life, around Deep Well and Titjikala. More recently, Doris produced intricate paintings that depict in acute detail her memories, past and present, and that feature places like Alice Wells, Mount Charlotte and Titjikala. She also paints the part of Iterrkewarre Tjukurrpa relating to James Range on Deep Well Station, the place of her birth.

In 2019 Doris was shortlisted for the Vincent Lingiari Art Prize, and exhibited a suite of work in Tarnanthi at Art Gallery South Australia. In 2020 Doris Thomas was a finalist in the Alice Prize. In 2020 and 2022, Doris was shortlisted for the Sir John Sulman Art Award at Art Gallery of NSW. 

In 2021, Doris Thomas received a Copyright Agency Cultural Fund grant, with which she worked with an animator and sound designer to animate her Eagle Story. This was exhibited at Adelaide's Migration Museum as part of Tarnanthi.

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