Ernabella Arts Inc.

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Piltati

There were two sisters who married two brothers and they all lived together. One day the women went wandering and they went such a long way that they forgot about their husbands. Back at the camp, the two husbands were thinking, ‘Where are our wives?’ and they decided to go looking for them. One brother said to the other, ‘What should we become to go looking for them?’ and the other brother said ‘Why don’t we become Rainbow Serpents?’ And they travelled in the sky looking down for their wives. Finally they see them hunting for carpet snakes and they put something in the hole where the women were digging. The women find it and then dig another hole and once again the men have put something in there. And this is how the men lure the women back to Piltati where the men make the sisters transform into Wanampi, swallow them and keep .them in their throats. All four of them live together in the waterhole and still live there today.

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Tjukurpa Mulayangu / Atipalku’s Story

Tjukurpa Mulayangu is a men’s law place. This is Atipalku’s father’s country in the western part of the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in South Australia. Mulayangu was a wanampi (water snake) who travelled all over this area creating rockholes.

In 2020 Atipalku and her family travelled to this area and stayed at their homeland, Tangkana, for the first time in many years. Atipallku was able to show her children and grandchildren this special place and share stories with them that had been passed down to her.

This painting depicts Atipalku’s father’s country with tjanpi (grass) and many tjukula (waterholes).

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Tjukurpa Mulayangu / Atipalku’s Story

Tjukurpa Mulayangu is a men’s law place. This is Atipalku’s father’s country in the western part of the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in South Australia. Mulayangu was a wanampi (water snake) who travelled all over this area creating rockholes.

In 2020 Atipalku and her family travelled to this area and stayed at their homeland, Tangkana, for the first time in many years. Atipallku was able to show her children and grandchildren this special place and share stories with them that had been passed down to her.

This painting depicts Atipalku’s father’s country with tjanpi (grass) and many tjukula (waterholes).

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Kungkarangkalpa / Seven Sisters

Kungkarangkalpa means the Seven Sisters. This is an extensive creation story that relates to the Pleiades constellation in the southern hemisphere. The story traverses Australia taking on different forms, however local women are privy to the part of the story which takes place in the country near Ernabella. For this part of the story, the man called Nyiru is chasing the sisters as he wants to sleep with the oldest sister. All the younger sisters are deeply afraid of him. As Nyiru is chasing the sisters, he tries to catch them by using magic to turn himself into the most tempting bush tomatoes for the sisters to eat and the most beautiful ili (fig) tree for the sisters to camp under. However, the sisters are aware of his magic and go hungry and run through the night rather than be caught by Nyiru. Eventually, to escape Nyiru, the sisters fly into the sky where they turn into stars and form the constellation.

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Tali / Sand dune

This design is inspired by the red sand dunes that are found throughout the central desert. There is a large red sand dune near Ernabella named Wamikata which is a popular place for looking for maku (witchetty grubs) and for teaching Milpatjunanyi (telling stories in the sand) to children.

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Tjutirangu Punu – Rainbow Tree

Alison remembers when she was young, her grandmother took her digging for tjala (honey ants) and the rain came in. She was watching the water coming down, how it made all the different colours on the tree, creating a beautiful rainbow in the tree. Now whenever there is rain in the afternoon around Ernabella and a rainbow comes, Alison thinks of that time as a child and she creates all of those colours again on the canvas.

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Pantu (Salt lake)

A very significant tjurkurpa (story) to Anangu is Kungkarangkalpa (Seven Sisters) which is an extensive creation story relating to the Pleiades constellation. The story traverses Australia taking different forms, and local women are privy to the part of the story which takes place in the country near Ernabella.

In her paintings Janice is depicting a salt-lake near Attila (Mt Connor) a landmark in the Seven Sisters story. This story has been passed down to her by senior artist and aunt Renita Stanley. In this part of the story the sisters are walking and traveling south through this country. The Salt Lake that is a part of this arid county comes alive after rain. As the kapi (water) moves across the land it transforms the colour and light on the land and Janice is painting this change and movement.

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Tjala / Honey Ants

Tjala or honey ants live in nests about a metre underground beneath mulga trees, and they are a highly favoured food source. The tjala tunnels that lead down to the ants’ nests are called nyinantu, and the larvae are called ipilyka-ipilyka. After the rain when the ground is soft the women go digging for tjala by looking for the drill holes under the trees. They then use shovels and crowbars to dig down following the tunnels to find the tjala inside. Anangu suck the delicious rich honey-like liquid from the distended abdomen of the tjala. The story of the tjala is told across the Northern Territory into South Australia and is an important link between Anangu mythology and inter-dependence on the environment.

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Kampurarpa Tjukurpa – Elizabeth’s Story

Kampurarpa are bush tomatoes. Elizabeth’s work comments on the environmental change that has occurred on her country due to the introduction of non-native fauna such as cattle, and flora, notably weeds like buffel grass. Buffel grass is so widespread and destructive that it is commonly known in and around Pukatja as tjanpi mamu or devil grass.

From the very start of Elizabeth’s artistic practice she has drawn her kampurarpa tjukurpa (bush tomato story) in clay. In the old times kampurarpa were one of the main foods for Anangu.

I’ve seen the land change. We used to have a lot of flowers. We used to go out to the bush to collect bush tucker, like kampurarpa (bush tomatoes). And now there’s a lot of buffel grass everywhere. The land is changed by the buffel grass. Now there’s no more flowers – no purple flowers, yellow flowers, white or pink flowers. I’ve seen it. When all the cattle and the sheep and the goats came, the kangaroos left and went a long way away. They saw the strange animals and they left. That’s a true story.

Today, sometimes we still go out and collect kampurarpa but not like we did before. Our country has been changed by cattle and weeds like buffel grass, so we can’t find all the old foods like we once did. I’ll keep telling the kampurarpa story in my work, that keeps the stories, songs and dances about these important foods alive and strong.

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Pantu (Salt lake)

A very significant tjurkurpa (story) to Anangu is Kungkarangkalpa (Seven Sisters) which is an extensive creation story relating to the Pleiades constellation. The story traverses Australia taking different forms, and local women are privy to the part of the story which takes place in the country near Ernabella.

In her paintings Janice is depicting a salt-lake near Attila (Mt Connor) a landmark in the Seven Sisters story. This story has been passed down to her by senior artist and aunt Renita Stanley. In this part of the story the sisters are walking and traveling south through this country. The Salt Lake that is a part of this arid county comes alive after rain. As the kapi (water) moves across the land it transforms the colour and light on the land and Janice is painting this change and movement.