Design and Art Australia Online

Kuntjiria Mick, a senior Pitjantjatjara artist, was born in 1931 at Kunatjarra. ' There is a big cave. The minyma piwi (tawny frogmouth woman) is sitting down. This is her country close up to Kuynutjarra. While she was sitting down eating two men came. They had travelled from Kalgoorlie. She offered them some food because she is auntie to these two. The two men went out to get some kuka (meat) – tjuwalpi (stick nest rat).’

For many years Kuntjiria walked through the country with her family, following tjukurpa tracks which link rockholes and sacred sites. Because of the transience of many food and water sources she and her family travelled widely through their traditional lands. Her family gathered with other anangu at permanent water sources in periods of drought and for ceremony and business. Kuntjiria recalls that when she was a young woman she used to hide if doggers approached. 'We were scared of the whitefellas. They were looking for wives, but they didn’t get me because I was hiding in a good place.’ In the 1950s when mining was intensifying around Irrunytju and Blackstone, Kuntjiria moved to Ernabella with her family.
Kuntjiria’s paintings refer to the tjukurpa connected to the rockholes in her country and Aralya, her husband’s country. ' Because I know the rockholes, I always go there with my family. That’s why I draw them, the dreamtime rockholes. Because I know the water. So that if I die, my family can take over and do the paintings. As a memory of me. They already know the rockholes, the places I used to go. My country, my husband’s country. The children know this country, their father’s country.’
At Aralya many women and children were sitting down after being out bush collecting kampurarpa (desert raisin). They were camping with three brothers Palpatitja, Wantjama and Yurru who were lying down. The eldest brother Palpatitja saw a big storm coming. He woke his brothers, “Pakala, pakala, wala, wala (quick, get up)”. The little brother said “Wanti, paku nyinani (no, I’m too tired)”. The two older brothers sheltered from the storm in a cave but the little brother stayed asleep outside. The storm was very wild and heavy kunata (hailstones) fell from the sky. The little brother was hit by stones and killed.
Kuntjiria’s paintings have a naïve graphic quality. Figures are strewn in expanses of finger-painted dots which simultaneously form a richly textured ground and represent hailstones. Kuntjiria’s application of paint is loose and expressive, her colours are strident and tonal constrasts strong. Her composition is spontaneous and asymmetrical and the resolution of the formal aspects of her images create a dynamic tension. Although Kuntjiria is now almost completely blind and no longer paints, she maintains a prolific weaving practice. Using brightly coloured raffia, often of a single intense colour, she weaves irregular conical shaped baskets with round bottoms. These heavily textured baskets are eccentric and exuberant.

Writers:

Knights, Mary

Date written:

2006

Last updated:

2011