Angkaliya Nelson, Kungkarangkalpa (Seven Sisters Story), 76x76cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Angkaliya Nelson
• Community - Pipalyatjara
• Aboriginal Art Centre - Ninuku Arts
• Catalogue number - 26-6
• Materials - Professional artist acrylic on canvas
• Size(cm) - H76 W76 D2  
• Postage variants - Artwork posted un-stretched and rolled for safe shipping
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hang as wished

This is a major Tjukurpa for Irrunytju (Wingellina) and across the central Australian deserts. The seven sisters travelled from Kaliwarra to Wannan in Western Australia, stopping at significant sites and rockholes including Kuru Ala, a sacred place for women. They encountered a lustful man named Wati Nyiru, who chased them around the desert. Some of the details of this Tjukurpa (Dreaming story) are sacred and can’t be repeated.

Angkaliya Nelson was born in 1960 at the Ernabella Mission in Pukatja, South Australia. She later grew up in Amata, where she met her husband and had two children. During the late 1970s and the “Homeland Movement”, Angkaliya and her family made the move west to Pipalyatjara to be closer to her traditional home lands. She continues to live in Pipalyatjara today. Angkaliya is a highly skilled craftswoman and artist. Like many other Anangu women, she has learnt the craft of ‘punu’ (wood carving and burning) and ‘tjanpi’ (grass weaving). In all of her crafts, including her modern dot work paintings, Angkaliya draws influence from ‘Mamungara’ and ‘Kungkarrakalpa Tjukurpa’, Seven Sisters Dreamtime stories.