Loren Pennington, born around 1935, belonged to the Pitjantjatjara language group. Though little biographical information is available, she is known for collaborating on art projects with Myrtle, contributing to collective works.
Myrtle was born around 1939 near Kanpa, a rock hole in the Spinifex region. Her journey to Cundeelee Mission in the late 1950s was marked by tragedy, as she lost her son and husband along the way. Australian servicemen later found her with her surviving children and brought them to the mission. Myrtle’s experience fleeing the British atomic testing site at Maralinga became crucial testimony during the 1984 Royal Commission.
When the Spinifex people returned to their homelands in the 1980's after their displacement during the Maralinga atomic tests, they found the southern part of their country had been converted in to a nature reserve, the northern third leased to Aboriginal people to the north and the centre deemed vacant crown land. The Spinifex people were upset. They had never seen, they said, the Queen cleaning out rock-holes in their country.
The recognition of native title by the High Court of Australia in 1992, gave the Spinifex people the opportunity to rectify the misappropriation of their land.' So writes Scott Cain in the introduction to his book Pila Nguru, published this month by Fremantle Art Centre Press.
On 28th of November 2001 the Federal Court of Australia visited the Spinifex homelands. Chief Justice Michael Black, sitting in black robes, backed by two traditional paintings of the Spinifex homelands, under the shade of a blue tarpaulin, formally recognised the native title rights of the Spinifex People.
In order to document their claim a suite of paintings were produced and used as evidence in the high court's deliberations. These paintings were subsequently given to the Western Australian Museum in a symbolic exchange of art for land.
Since successfully reclaiming their heritage Spinifex people have moved back on to their land and on successive field trips to specific locations have continued to record their sacred places in paintings quite different aesthetically than any others amongst Australian desert artists.