Artist: Rene Kulitja | Title: Kungkarangkalpa Seven Sisters | Year: 2009 | Medium: synthetic polymer paint on canvas | Dimensions: 149.5 x 99.5 cm
PROVENANCE
Maruku Arts & Crafts, N.T
Cooee Art Gallery, NSW
ARTWORK STORY
Rene Kulitja's Paintings depict the Tjukurpa, the Law and stories of Ancestors. Anangu (Central and Western Desert Aboriginal people) have responsibilities for the protection and teaching of different Tjukurpa and there are strict protocols for the imparting of knowledge. The dotting technique has evolved with the need to adapt sacred expressions of Tjukurpa for public viewing and as a depiction of the desert landscape.
Kungkarangkalpa is the Tjukurpa of the Seven Sisters, concerning a group of women being pursued by a cunning man called Nyiru who attempts to lure them into marriage with him. He disguises himself in countless ways to trick the sisters, and is sometimes also invisible in paintings. In their escape the sisters travelled through a vast amount of Australia. They stopped to camp, build shelters and hunt for food, thus forming many features of the landscape and embedding the knowledge of survival in it. Eventually they fled into the sky where they became the constellation known as the Pleiades or Seven Sisters. Nyiru still follows them ceaselessly across the night sky as one of the bright stars in the constellation of Orion.
Artist Profile
COMMUNITY/REGION
Ernabella, NT
LANGUAGE
Pitjantjatjarra
BIOGRAPHY
Rene Kulitja is an active member of the Mutitjulu Women's Centre located at Uluru (Ayres Rock) in the Northern Territory. She played a major role in aspects of the interior design of the Uluru Kata Tjuta Cultural Centre, and in 2002, Kulitja worked with Balarinji Studio in Sydney to design the exterior of a Qantas Boeing 737-800 fuselage. The Seven Sisters songline passes through her country and is the dominant women's Dreaming in this region.
© Adrian Newstead
PROVENANCE
Maruku Arts & Crafts, N.T
Cooee Art Gallery, NSW
ARTWORK STORY
Rene Kulitja's Paintings depict the Tjukurpa, the Law and stories of Ancestors. Anangu (Central and Western Desert Aboriginal people) have responsibilities for the protection and teaching of different Tjukurpa and there are strict protocols for the imparting of knowledge. The dotting technique has evolved with the need to adapt sacred expressions of Tjukurpa for public viewing and as a depiction of the desert landscape.
Kungkarangkalpa is the Tjukurpa of the Seven Sisters, concerning a group of women being pursued by a cunning man called Nyiru who attempts to lure them into marriage with him. He disguises himself in countless ways to trick the sisters, and is sometimes also invisible in paintings. In their escape the sisters travelled through a vast amount of Australia. They stopped to camp, build shelters and hunt for food, thus forming many features of the landscape and embedding the knowledge of survival in it. Eventually they fled into the sky where they became the constellation known as the Pleiades or Seven Sisters. Nyiru still follows them ceaselessly across the night sky as one of the bright stars in the constellation of Orion.
Artist Profile
COMMUNITY/REGION
Ernabella, NT
LANGUAGE
Pitjantjatjarra
BIOGRAPHY
Rene Kulitja is an active member of the Mutitjulu Women's Centre located at Uluru (Ayres Rock) in the Northern Territory. She played a major role in aspects of the interior design of the Uluru Kata Tjuta Cultural Centre, and in 2002, Kulitja worked with Balarinji Studio in Sydney to design the exterior of a Qantas Boeing 737-800 fuselage. The Seven Sisters songline passes through her country and is the dominant women's Dreaming in this region.
© Adrian Newstead
