Mary Roberts, Yalka at Murini, 102x76cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Mary Roberts
• Community - Ikuntji (Haasts Bluff) 
• Aboriginal Art Centre - Ikuntji Artists
• Catalogue number - 19MR40
• Materials - Acrylic on linen 
• Size(cm) - H76 W102 D2  
• Postage variants - Artwork posted un-stretched and rolled for safe shipping
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hang as wished

This artwork depicts designs associated with Yalka Tjukurrpa (Bush Onion Dreaming) at Murini, near another sacred site of Winparrku, west of Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory. The Yalka is a traditional bush food represented here by the circles with
meandering lines emanating from them. The long parallel lines represent creek beds, with waterholes being the concentric circles, U shapes are the women and the short parallel lines are wana (digging sticks) and trees. Bush onions may be eaten raw or cooked after removing the hard casing. They are a small onion sedge with corms on shallow roots, the size of a small shallot. The women would perform a traditional ceremony in honour of the Bush Onion where they dance and paint their breast, chest and forearms in ceremonial body designs. They also decorate their bodies with feathers and dance with ceremonial objects such as nulla nullas (ceremonial dancing baton).

Mary Roberts was born at Haasts Bluff in 1964. She attended school there until she was eleven, when the family moved to Papunya, where her father continued his role as a Lutheran pastor and also worked in the Papunya school, composing many titles for the Literature Production Centre .

Painting goes back two generations in Mary Roberts’ family, but so far she is the only one of her five siblings to take up painting. She joined Papunya Tjupi in 2008, having been taught how to paint on canvas by her father Murphy Roberts Tjupurrula, who was one of the most respected senior lawmen in the Papunya community and also a Lutheran pastor. Murphy worked in the church at Haasts Bluff while Mary was a young girl and she remembers watching her maternal grandfather Limpi Tjapangati, one of the early Papunya Tula painters, working on his canvases. Elements of his distinctive style are discernible in Mary’s work. Mary completed her education at Yirara College in Alice Springs, reaching Year 8. Returning to Papunya she worked for ten years in the Papunya preschool as a teachers aide. Mary’s aunty Lorabelle Puntungunka, her mother’s younger sister, joined Papunya Tjupi Arts at the outset. It was she who told Mary she should paint her grandfather’s stories. Mary said, “She told me to paint before she passed away last year. I was thinking that I want to paint that story. I was thinking of doing painting with story on it. I have only just started painting.”

Mary moved back to Haasts Bluff in 2016 and has been painting at Ikuntji Artists since.

A lot of stories are still being recounted of long journeys of people from various language groups, who travelled from rockholes and waterholes to caves and mountains finally arriving at Haasts Bluff. The locals, Luritja people of Haasts Bluff, were already here. Thus Haasts Bluff is a community rich of diversity in language and culture.

Ikuntji Artists was first established in 1992, after a series of workshops with Melbourne artist Marina Strocchi, and under the influence of the then community president, the late Esther Jugadai. The art centre was initially set up to fulfil the role of women’s centre providing services such as catering for old people and children in the community. After first experiences made in printing T-shirts, the artists began producing acrylic paintings on linen and handmade paper, which quickly gained the attention of the Australian and international art world as well as earning the centre an impressive reputation for fine art. The focus changed from a women’s centre to an art centre in 2005 with the incorporation of the art centre as Ikuntji Artists Aboriginal Corporation.

The artists draw their inspiration from their personal ngurra (country) and Tjukurrpa (Dreaming). They interpret the ancestral stories by using traditional symbols, icons and motifs. The artistic repertoire of Ikuntji Artists is diverse and includes for example: naive as well as highly abstract paintings told by each artist in their personal signature style. Throughout the 21 years of its existence the art movement in Ikuntji has flourished and constantly left its mark in the fine art world. At the same time the art centre has been the cultural hub of the community, maintaining, reinforcing and reinvigorating cultural practices through art-making.

Today Ikuntji Artists has eight key artists, who exhibit in Australia and internationally. They are represented in major collections across the globe.

Text: Melanie Greiner, Alison Multa and Dr Chrischona Schmidt