Myra Kumantjara, Minyma Kutjara, 197x197cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Myra Kumantjara
• Community - Coober Pedy
• Aboriginal Art Centre - Umoona Community Art Centre
• Catalogue number - 742-25
• Materials - Professional artist acrylic on Belgian linen
• Size(cm) - H197 W197 D2
• Postage variants - Artwork posted un-stretched and rolled for safe shipping
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hang as wished

Myra Kumantjara paints variations on the enduring theme of her grandmother's Country, Kalpi, near Mimili in the APY Lands. Her work is rooted in the transmission of secret women's knowledge and cultural ceremonies associated with waterholes. These sites, where water gathers in rocky basins after rain, are vital sources of sustenance during the arid dry season. Their significance is passed down through generations in the form of story and song. While grounded in this cultural framework, Myra's practice is marked by improvisation. Each work reimagines form and colour as abstract languages, ways of evoking the deep spiritual meaning of place while carefully withholding sacred knowledge from the gaze of the uninitiated. In this way, her paintings operate as both expression and protection: they are acts of cultural endurance, interpretation, and care.

Umoona Community Art Centre is Indigenous owned and governed, based in Umoona community at Coober Pedy in the north of South Australia. It was established in 2020 alongside the art centres of the neighbouring Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands, with the aim of building sustainable employment pathways for artists. The artists wanted a permanent centre they owned and operated themselves, and opened their purpose-built studio in Umoona in early 2024. The community is diverse. Artists from different language groups across the central desert work alongside people who have always called Umoona and Coober Pedy home, more than thirty of them, aged from sixteen to seventy. They work in acrylic on linen, punu and carving, tjanpi weaving and ceramics, in a wide range of styles, with strong colour and energetic mark making.