Art from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yunkunyjatjara (APY) Lands
Kawarila pulkara Pukularinyi Nyurampa Nganampa manata Tjukuritja Kula pitjalaya ngawa Exipitjini nyangangka kala utini Tjukutjuka nyura nyakula kulira nintiringkutjaku Nganampa ara manta munu Tjukurpa - Mike Williams
The Traditional Owners of the APY Lands welcome you to experience a tiny bit of our world. This exhibition is our culture, our law, it lives in our blood and our country. You will experience a celebration of this culture today - Mike Williams
THE EXHIBITION
15 October - 11 December 2016
Free Admission
Nganampa Kililpil: Our Stars is the first major survey exhibition from the artists of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunyjatjara (APY) Lands of central Australia - a partnership project between Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre and APY Lands artists and art centres.
Bringing together more than 100 artists from across the Lands, the exhibition is an important opportunity for the region to speak as a whole and to share unique cultural and artistic traditions. The richly coloured, dynamic and powerful works articulate the central themes of Tjukurpa (Law), Ngura (Country), and Inma (ceremony), telling of Anangu creation stories, the landscape and its important sites.
Featuring over 70 works from public and private collections across the country, Nganampa Kililpil: Our Stars became the catalyst for four major collaborative works that, for the first time, sees artists from across the APY Lands working together on large scale single works. At the heart of the works is the coming together of the artists as a family and sharing of knowledge and culture from one generation to the next as senior artists worked alongside younger and emerging artists, teaching them the stories and associated imagery.
apy mEN'S collaborative 2016 WAS PAINTED BY 22 ARTISTS, INCLUDING (l-r) Ronnie dOUGLAS, bRENTON kEN, wILLY kAIKA bURTON, mICK wIKILYIRI AND rAY kEN (tJALA aRTS). iMAGE Rhett hAMMERTON.
Members of Aboriginal communities are respectfully advised that a number of people mentioned in writing or depicted in photographs in the following pages have passed away.
apy lands artist/tjanpi desert weavers collaboration punu kutjara - two trees 2016. L- R Mary katajuku pan, illawanti ungkutjuru ken, tjunkaya tapaya, Imiyari frank, niningka lewis. copyright tjanpi desert weavers, npy women's council
Many of the well known artists from this region are senior members of their communities – important law men and women who are custodians to the many stories and songlines that traverse the desert regions and their ancestral homelands. As an Anangu person gains age, knowledge and responsibility, they gain authority to paint increasingly complex and meaningful interpretations of subjects including their Country and surrounding sites (including their mother’s and father’s country), ancestral stories, various themes associated with native wildlife, and more. Art is an important locus for younger generations to learn these traditions and laws, and for the sharing and transfer of knowledge. Each art centre has a range of people working at the art centre – from the senior and established artist to the young and emerging.
Notes on Language
Anangu is the Pitjantjatjara word for an Aboriginal person. Pitjantjatjara and Yankunyjatjara are Western Desert language groups.
When an Anangu person dies, their first name is not used for a certain period of time in respect to the family, and is replaced with the word Kunmanara. Permission has been granted for this exhibition to refer to first names for the identification of artists.
Some pronunciations: Nganampa: Nan-um-pa; Kililpil: Kill-ill-pill; Anangu: Arn-ang-oo; Pitjantjatjara: Pigeon-jarrah; Yankunyjatjara: Young-kun-jarrah; Ngaanyatjarra: Naanat-jarrah; Tjanpi: Jumpy. For more Anangu words in Pitjantjatjara, see the Glossary.
“Nganana unngu kututungka tjukurpa tjuta kanyini munula palulanguru kunpu ngarany.
Nyangatja nganampa titji malatjaku ngaranyi tjana kulu kunpugku kanyintjaku nganana purunytju”
“In this canvas is our story.
We have these stories in our heart and inside us.
This makes us strong.
This is for the next generation, so they can strongly hold the stories like we do.”
ARTIST nyukana Norris WITH THE APY WOMEN'S COLLABORATIVE kUNGKARANGKALPA - SEVEN SISTERS 2016, AT kALTJITI aRTS, fREGON community, mAY 2016. COURTESY kALTJITI aRTS.
