CompNet Systems

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Uwulkari – Watiya Tjuta

Mitjili paints her fathers Tjukurrpa, the ceremonial spear straightening in Uwalkari country (Gibson desert region). The Watiya Tjuta (Acacia Trees) are the trees that are used to make these spears. Uwalkari country is abundant with Watiya Tjuta, as well as sand hills and other plants. Mitjili paints the motif of the Watiya Tjuta, carrying on the recurring motif as her mother used to draw in the sand. Her mother passed on this Dreaming to her. 

Napurrula’s father, Tupa Tjakamarra gave her the right to paint works related to Ilyingaungau in the Gibson Desert. This site, south of Walungurru (Kintore), some 520 kilometres west of Mparntwe (Alice Springs), is where the artist’s Mutikatjirri ancestors assembled their kulata (spears) for a conflict with the Tjukula men. Allusive works that refer to the straightening of kulata by Tjupurrula are among the landmark paintings of the Ikuntji Artists movement’s 30-year history. The paintings of Napurrula and her husband, Long Tom Tjapanangka, have come to be understood as archetypical of Ikuntji art since they began to work with the arts centre in 1993. Napurrula remembers, ‘ … After I got married, my mother taught me my father’s Tjukurrpa in the sand, that’s what I’m painting on the canvas’. The white pigment eddies around abstract forms that refer to the spearwood trees. The tightly structured patterning of the key motifs and bold use of colour demonstrates the artist’s confidence in her individual artistic vision within a family of superlative artists – and the cultural heritage that continues to inform the myriad expressions of Western Desert artists.

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Kuruyultu

In this print Eunice depicts her father’s Tjukurrpa (Dreaming). It shows the country at Kuruyultu, near Tjukurrla in Western Australia.

Eunice Napanangka Jack says about the artwork:

‘This is my country. I can’t remember how it all happened, because it happened before I was born. I have a scar on my back from it. My grandfather speared a wallaby at Kuruyultu. That night he ate that wallaby. At the same time my mother could feel me moving inside her. She was heavily pregnant with me. That next morning, after my grandfather had speared the wallaby, killed it and eaten it, I was born. I was born at Kuruyultu, near the rockhole there. I can’t remember my grandfather or my grandmother. I was still a little baby. We left that place, Kuruyultu. My father, my mother, my big sister and my father’s brother, we all left together and went to Haasts Bluff. I grew up in Haasts Bluff. I have been back to Kuruyultu for visits but I never lived there again in my country. I think about it every day. Only my father knows all the stories for that country and he painted them too… all the men’s stories. I know the story of the wallaby mother and daughter which left me with a birthmark. That’s what I paint: the wallaby mother and daughter.’

 

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Water hole

This is the way the water runs off the sand into the much needed water hole where it stays for a long time. The travelers and animals can find water here.

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Water hole

This is the way the water runs off the sand into the much needed water hole where it stays for a long time. The travelers and animals can find water here.

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Kuruyultu

In this print Eunice depicts her father’s Tjukurrpa (Dreaming). It shows the country at Kuruyultu, near Tjukurrla in Western Australia.

Eunice Napanangka Jack says about the artwork:

‘This is my country. I can’t remember how it all happened, because it happened before I was born. I have a scar on my back from it. My grandfather speared a wallaby at Kuruyultu. That night he ate that wallaby. At the same time my mother could feel me moving inside her. She was heavily pregnant with me. That next morning, after my grandfather had speared the wallaby, killed it and eaten it, I was born. I was born at Kuruyultu, near the rockhole there. I can’t remember my grandfather or my grandmother. I was still a little baby. We left that place, Kuruyultu. My father, my mother, my big sister and my father’s brother, we all left together and went to Haasts Bluff. I grew up in Haasts Bluff. I have been back to Kuruyultu for visits but I never lived there again in my country. I think about it every day. Only my father knows all the stories for that country and he painted them too… all the men’s stories. I know the story of the wallaby mother and daughter which left me with a birthmark. That’s what I paint: the wallaby mother and daughter.’

 

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Tjilkamala – Porcupine rockhole

This is the story of Tjilkamala – the porcupine man. He is travelling around Talaalpi, west of Kintore and is looking for ants. He digs for them in the ground and creates holes. Meanwhile tracking behind him are women out hunting, hoping to make the porcupine their tucker for the evening. These holes fill with water after the rain and with the morning dew. Over many years they have become rockholes.
This work is the story of Alice’s personal Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) – the Porcupine. The setting is the rockholes in and around the swamp of Talaalpi in Western Australia.

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Tjilkamala – Porcupine rockhole

This is the story of Tjilkamala – the porcupine man. He is travelling around Talaalpi, west of Kintore and is looking for ants. He digs for them in the ground and creates holes. Meanwhile tracking behind him are women out hunting, hoping to make the porcupine their tucker for the evening. These holes fill with water after the rain and with the morning dew. Over many years they have become rockholes.
This work is the story of Alice’s personal Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) – the Porcupine. The setting is the rockholes in and around the swamp of Talaalpi in Western Australia.

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Station House at Ikuntji

This print shows the old station house at Ikuntji with a hard rock cafe hanging over the door. The print reminds everyone of what this historical building looked like in the 1990s.

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Station House at Ikuntji

This print shows the old station house at Ikuntji with a hard rock cafe hanging over the door. The print reminds everyone of what this historical building looked like in the 1990s.