Lexie Michael, Tjakura Tjukurpa - Lexie's Story, 101x50cm

• Aboriginal Artist  - Lexie Michael
• Community - Pukatja (Ernabella) 
• Aboriginal Art- centre - Ernabella Arts
• Catalogue number - 131/25
• Materials - Professional artist acrylic on heavy-weight canvas
• Size(cm) - H101 W50 D2
• Postage variants - Artwork posted un-stretched and rolled for safe shipping
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hand as wished

This Tjukurpa is from Lexie’s grandfather’s homeland called Kunytjanu, located just south of Pipalyatjara near the SA/WA border. It’s a story about Tjakura, the great desert skink, a burrowing lizard of the APY Lands.

Tjakura has a lot of grandchildren looking after him. One day, a long time ago, he saw too many strangers, an army coming from Mutitjulu. They came and found Tjakura and they killed him. All the kids made a cemetery there for Tjakura. This is a really big story that goes from Kunytjanu to Aralya.

Lexie was a batik artist at Ernabella Arts in the 1980s and 90s. Like many artists of that time, her work featured design elements inspired by the desert landscape. The batik produced at Ernabella Arts includes magnificent long silk lengths, paintings, wall hangings and scarves. Today Ernabella batik textiles are held in private collections and public galleries and museums throughout the world. Lexie recently returned to Ernabella Arts and started painting with acrylics for the first time. Her deep knowledge of country is evident in her paintings. In 2020 Lexie exhibited in her first show, Nganampa ngura-nguru nyurampa ngurakutu (From our place to your place), at Aboriginal Signature in Belgium. Her artwork from that exhibition was then used in a collaboration with Indigenous label Maara Collective to create a range of resort wear. The range premiered on the catwalk at Australian Fashion Week in 2021, and was featured on the cover of Marie Claire magazine in July that year.