Kukika Adamson
My name is Kukika Adamson, I was born in Pukatja Community and now live in Adelaide. I am the daughter of a great artist named Tiger Palpatja and I paint the Wanampi Tjukurpa, an important cultural story I inherited from my father. The first artworks I made at Ernabella Arts were floor rugs and weaving.
I started work at Ernabella Arts when I was a school kid, and worked there after school. Today at the APY Adelaide Studio I work beside Yaritji (Mutu Mutu) Heffernan and Wanatjura Lewis. We were schoolmates when we were little girls at Pukatja. It's over 50 years later and we are still working together in our art centre.
Yaritji Heffernan
Yaritji Heffernan was born in Mulga Park station near Ernabella. Her parents were both Pitjantjatjara, her father was from Angkatja and her mother was from Umutju. Yaritji moved to Adelaide in 2010 and has been painting at the APY Studio Adelaide since it opened in May 2019. Yaritji paints at the studio daily alongside other senior women and is an important leader and teacher in the centre, encouraging young artists in their emerging practice.
Yaritji paints Kapi Tjukula (rock holes), an important source of water for Anangu during the dry season when most of the creeks dry up. Her concentric circles represent these rock holes, where water collects after the rains. Water is an essential element in the desert. Knowledge of rock hole sites is passed on from generation to generation and revered by all Pitjantjatjara people.
Inawintji Williamson
Inawintji Williamson was born in the bush in Pukatja (Ernabella) on the APY Lands in 1953. Inawintji is a bush woman of Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara descent and grew up in Fregon community with her family. Before becoming a painter, Ina engaged in arts and craft production with other women in both communities from a very young age; painting cards, making wall hangings and floor rugs, moccasins from kangaroo hide, batik and tie-dye.
The art centre in Kaltjiti started in a little shed and Inawintji was involved from the beginning. She helped advocate for the larger space which the group later secured and which remains the Kaltjiti Arts studio today. Inawintji was a leader and Chairperson of Kaltjiti Arts and Ananguku Arts. In 2007 Inawintji moved to Adelaide to undertake dialysis treatment. While based in Adelaide, Inawintji has worked for the University of Adelaide for 10 years teaching language, inma (traditional song and dance) and Tjukurpa (Aboriginal law) at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies.
In 2020 Inawintji recommitted to her artistic practice, attending the APY Studio Adelaide to paint on a daily basis. She is also a leader and teacher in the studio, mentoring young female artists in their emerging practices. Inawintji says the studio in Adelaide is a powerful and vital place for Anangu who are “off-Country” to congregate, share and celebrate culture with a special kind of “remembering” that takes place every time they paint.
Tjinkuma Wells
Tjinkuma was born in the hills of Ernabella and grew up with her family there. She went to school in Ernabella and once completed, married into the Wells family. Tjimkuma trained to be a teacher and then worked at the Ernabella school and had six children. As a teacher, she taught culture and language through painting and drawing to the children. In her spare time while living in community, she also worked at Ernabella Arts as a painter. And paints with Iwiri Arts when in Adelaide.
Daisybell Kulyuru
Daisybell Tjalumi Kulyuru was born in Ernabella in 1971. She has previously worked at Ernabella Arts where she learnt to paint and make batik.
Daisybell worked at Ernabella School as an Aboriginal Education Worker for many years and now lives with her two children between Adelaide and Ernabella
Text via APY Art Centre Collective and Iwiri Arts
