the time. Recently I’ve made some lithograph prints, as well as
collages and paintings on photos from books. This year I’m really
excited to work on a special film project with other young women
from the Indulkana Community. Us young women love to dance
and have fun and make each other laugh and we’re making a film
project to show a strong, positive message about life in a remote
Indigenous community.
How do you find ideas?
I have a big stack of books, magazines, comic books and images
sourced from the internet in my studio and I’m always listening
to good music to get me in the right mood and give me ideas for
my paintings.
Is the environment where you work important to you?
I work at Iwantja Arts, an art centre in the Indulkana Community.
The country here, the local plants and animals all feature in my
work. The desert landscape is beautiful and is so important to my
family and our culture.
Do you paint every day?
I’m in the art centre working Monday to Friday and sometimes on
a Saturday if there’s not a sports carnival happening with football
and softball. I used to be the softball team captain for Indulkana
and I’m still involved with supporting the younger girls on the
team now.
Your work blends traditional culture and contemporary
influences. Can you tell me how you first learnt about your
traditional culture?
It’s An_angu way for the elders to teach the younger generations
about traditional culture, like Tjukurpa (cultural stories) and
Inma (ceremonial song/dance). In our community we’re speaking
Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara language, we’re collecting bush
tucker and hunting for food. I love going out in the bush collecting
mingkulpa (native tobacco plant) with my aunties.Your paintings also feature significant contemporary influences.
You mention celebrities like Dolly Parton, who is a public figure,
but you relate to her in a way that seems very personal. Can you
describe what she means to you?
My generation grew up with Coca-Cola and TV as well as
Tjukurpa (cultural stories) and bush tucker, so I like to have a
bit of fun with combining those two different worlds – like when
I paint Wonder Woman as a strong Aboriginal kungka (lady)
looking for mingkulpa out in the bush. When I listen to music
while I’m painting it is sort of like the singer coming to life in the
studio and performing just for me. I start to think, ‘What if Dolly
Parton came to visit us in Indulkana?’ and then I try to make that
happen on the canvas.There is a real sense of humour conveyed in the way you put
ideas and images together.
When I’m making the paintings and coming up with ideas, I’m
just having fun and letting things happen without too much
planning – I know that if the other artists are checking it out and
laughing and enjoying what I’m doing, then the painting is working.For ‘The National: New Australian Art’ at the Museum of
Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) in Sydney in 2019, you used
a road sign as a base for the work, Welcome to Iwantja Arts.
Where did you find the sign and why paint on it?
The sign used to be out on the highway near the turn-off to the
Indulkana Community. The signs were to tell all the tourists
to come and have a look and maybe buy a small painting, or a
bookmark, or a necklace or a boomerang. We don’t make that stuff
for tourists anymore at Iwantja Arts – we’re making paintings- big paintings, strong paintings – about our culture and our
country. So we took that sign down from the highway and I
painted on it. It was really special and I felt so proud to see that
painting in the MCA – it was like a real piece of Indulkana had
been put in the gallery.
What do you hope it meant for the audience?
I hope that people see the road sign paintings as showing how
strong our connection to country is and how proud we are of our
community and our art centre. Our art centre has grown stronger
and stronger every year, and all the artists are very proud of our
culture and artworks.Do you travel for your major city exhibitions? How does it feel
when you win major awards like the Sulman Prize at the Art
Gallery of New South Wales, for Kaylene TV in 2018?
I’ve been to Darwin, Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne to see my
work and it’s always special when other artists or people in the(^) When I listen to music
while I’m painting it is like
the singer coming to life and
performing just for me.^
06