Uti Kulintjaku and Smiling Mind guided meditations launched!

Our social enterprise Tjanpi Desert Weavers helped kick off another successful Desert Mob – an annual event celebrating contemporary art from Aboriginal owned art centres in Central Australia.

NPY Women’s Council director and Tjanpi senior weaver, Rene Kulitja, officially opened the 2018 event in front of hundreds of people on Thursday evening. And on Friday, Tjanpi artist Cynthia Burke presented at the Desert Mob Symposium with animator Jonathan Daw on their project Ngayuku Papa (My Dog); an animation about Cynthia’s own papa, Tiny.

And on Saturday, Tjanpi work proved popular with the crowd at the Marketplace, with our staff recording a sales increase of 35% compared to last year.

But the talking point of Tjanpi’s involvement at Desert Mob was an artwork in the exhibition by our artists Nancy Nanana Jackson and Judith Yinyika Chambers titled Tutjurangara Massacre (Circus Water Rockhole Massacre).

The work tells the story of a massacre that happened at Tutjurangara (Circus Water) sometime prior to 1935. Both Nancy and Judith’s relatives were involved in the massacre and, in collaboration with key knowledge holder Bernard Newberry, they created this work.

The story is told all over the Ngaanyatjarra lands of Western Australia, but there is no written record of the massacre. In creating this artwork and telling the story of the Tutjurangara massacre, Nancy, Judith and Bernard hope to raise the profile of this significant event and share the often brutal reality of the early meetings between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Australia.

The work was purchased on opening night by Deborah Sims and Matt Dickson from the Sims Dickson Collection.

In a statement released, the pair said that “Judith and Nancy’s incredible Tjanpi work is beautiful, honest, brave and innovative.”

“It tells us a true story that we all need to know. We’ll be lending it for public exhibition as far and wide as we can.

“Without acknowledgement by non-Aboriginal Australians of past wrongs, there can be no moral foundation for Australia’s future. Tutjurangara Massacre is a hugely important step on that path.”

The work will be on display at Araluen Arts Centre until the Desert Mob exhibition closes on Friday 21 October.

Pantjiti Unkari Mckenzie was awarded the Order of Australia Medal on the 26th of January for “service to the Indigenous community of the Northern Territory”.

Pantjiti has spent much of her life living in the Ernabella Community. Pantjiti and her husband set up EVTV which made films on many subjects. She estimates that they made over a thousand films. They also worked for PY Media on the Broadcasting for Remote Aboriginal Community Services program (BRACS). Pantjiti enjoys acting. She has appeared in films about bush tucker, bush medicine, the Seven Sisters and she also performed in the stage play, Ngapartji Ngapartji.
A skilled artist in paint, batik and weaving tjanpi (grass) baskets and a teacher of the Pitjantjatjara language, Pantjiti is also a traditional healer or ngangkari, specialising in treating women’s problems. Her work in archiving and sharing knowledge around cultural heritage are renowned. Recently Pantjiti worked on the Smiling Mind Meditation app with the Uti Kulintjaku team.

Pantjiti joins an important history of strong women associated with NPY Women’s Council that have received the OAM or AM awards:

Purki Edwards, OAM
For service to Nursing and to Aboriginal welfare (1979)

Nganyinytja, AM
For service to Aboriginal culture and welfare (1993)

Tjikalyi Collins, OAM
In recognition of Service to the Aboriginal Community (1994)

Barbara Tjikatu, OAM
For service to the Indigenous community of the Northern Territory as an Anangu Elder, and in the preservation and management of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park (2006)

Andrea Mason, OAM
For Service to the Indigenous community of the Northern Territory (2018)