KAPI from Tjarlirli & Kaltukatjara Art Centres

• Artist: Rosalind Yibardi
• Title: Kultukatjara Rockholes
• Size: 40.6 x 55.9cm

Rosalind Yibardi is a senior artist and previous director of Tjarlirli and Kaltukatjara Art.
She is also a member of both the NPY Women's Council and the acclaimed Central
Australian Aboriginal Women's choir.

Rosalind has been painting canvas and weaving baskets and sculptures from tjanpi
(native grasses) for many years and has passed these skills onto her children and
grandchildren.

Early life

Rosalind was born near Puta Puta, around 90 kilometres east of Kaltukatjara (Docker
River). She has lived and travelled throughout the Western Desert region. As a young
girl, she lived in Putarti, before travelling through the ranges on a camel-drawn cart to
Tempe Downs. At the age of seven, she moved from Tempe Downs to Areyonga,
walking there with her family.

Rosalind later moved to Kaltukatjara with her three children, to live closer to her
birthplace.

From educator to respected elder

Rosalind worked at community schools in both Areyonga and Kaltukatjara, and fondly
remembers taking the children on excursions to the cities down south and out on
country. She has also visited Germany to sing with the Central Australian Aboriginal
Women's Choir and has many fond memories from this trip.

She is a highly respected elder in the Kaltukatjara community and is an almost-daily
presence in the art centre. Her kindness, good humour, rich knowledge and artistic
prowess make her an essential member of Tjarlirli and Kaltukatjara Art.

• Artist: Mal Porter
• Title: Tjarliri
• Size: 40.6 x 76.2cm

Tjarlirli is very close to Tjukurla community. It is the site where the
Punyunyu/Tingarri women were staying separate from the men during the
Tingarri ceremony. At that site they prepared food for the men and Maliki
(visitors). Tjarlirli pays homage to the woman for their important role in food
gathering, preparation, cooking and feeding of their menfolk and families.

• Artist: Mal Porter
• Title: Tjarliri
• Size: 91.4 x 91.4cm

Tjarlirli is very close to Tjukurla community. It is the site where the
Punyunyu/Tingarri women were staying separate from the men during the
Tingarri ceremony. At that site they prepared food for the men and Maliki
(visitors). Tjarlirli pays homage to the woman for their important role in food
gathering, preparation, cooking and feeding of their menfolk and families.

• Artist: Maimie Giles
• Title: Malul Kumpu
• Size: 30.5 x 40.6cm

• Artist: Joy Jackson
• Title: Nyinga Tjukurrpa
• Size: 40.6 x 76.2cm

Joy paints tjukurrpa (dreaming stories) from a number of her family's traditional
homes across the Ngaanyatjarra lands.

Joy Jackson has painted with Kaltukatjara Art since the centre was established in
Docker River in 2016.

She was born in Warburton in Western Australia and grew up in Papulankutja
(Blackstone). She has spent time around her mother's home of Warakurna, but has
raised her family in Kaltukatjara (Docker River).

Joy paints tjukurrpa (dreaming stories) from a number of her family's traditional homes
across the Ngaanyatjarra lands. Joy exhibited her works at the 'Revealed' exhibition for
emerging artists at Fremantle Art Centre in 2019, and has participated in several group
exhibitions in WA.

This painting depicts Joy's maternal grandmother's birthplace of Katjalurlu,
which is west of the WA border near the Irrunytju turnoff on the Warakurna road,
in Ngaanyatjarra country.

On the other side of the turnoff, there's a bore; if you go further into the bush
there you'll find Katjalurlu. There is one kapi, rockhole, there. Around that place
are karu (creeks), puli (rocky mountains) and tali (sandhills). When there are
clouds in the sky, the landscape is patterned with shadows.

The story at this place is Nyinga Tjukurrpa, ice dreaming. This story comes
from the south, lots of men and two ladies. Joy learnt this story from her
grandmother and mother, Warakurna artist Nanacy Nyanyana Jackson.

Joy depicts the women sitting down near the waterhole, surrounded by the
natural features of the landscape. She favours harmonious colours and often
builds up layers in her works by laying out the composition with brushes, before
adding features with punu (wooden stick application).

• Artist: Joy Jackson
• Title: Nyinga Tjukurrpa
• Size: 30.5 x 40.6cm

Joy paints tjukurrpa (dreaming stories) from a number of her family's traditional
homes across the Ngaanyatjarra lands.

Joy Jackson has painted with Kaltukatjara Art since the centre was established in
Docker River in 2016.

She was born in Warburton in Western Australia and grew up in Papulankutja
(Blackstone). She has spent time around her mother's home of Warakurna, but has
raised her family in Kaltukatjara (Docker River).

Joy paints tjukurrpa (dreaming stories) from a number of her family's traditional homes
across the Ngaanyatjarra lands. Joy exhibited her works at the 'Revealed' exhibition for
emerging artists at Fremantle Art Centre in 2019, and has participated in several group
exhibitions in WA.

This painting depicts Joy's maternal grandmother's birthplace of Katjalurlu,
which is west of the WA border near the Irrunytju turnoff on the Warakurna road,
in Ngaanyatjarra country.

On the other side of the turnoff, there's a bore; if you go further into the bush
there you'll find Katjalurlu. There is one kapi, rockhole, there. Around that place
are karu (creeks), puli (rocky mountains) and tali (sandhills). When there are
clouds in the sky, the landscape is patterned with shadows.

The story at this place is Nyinga Tjukurrpa, ice dreaming. This story comes
from the south, lots of men and two ladies. Joy learnt this story from her
grandmother and mother, Warakurna artist Nanacy Nyanyana Jackson.

Joy depicts the women sitting down near the waterhole, surrounded by the
natural features of the landscape. She favours harmonious colours and often
builds up layers in her works by laying out the composition with brushes, before
adding features with punu (wooden stick application).

• Artist: Donna Ferguson
• Title: Tali and Kapi - Kaltukatjara
• Size: 55.9 x 91.4cm

Donna Ferguson is a young artist from Kaltukatjara (Docker River). Donna
paints important Tjukurpa (Dreaming) from around the Docker River area
and particularly enjoys depicting the forms of tali (sand hills) and kapi
(water). Donna uses a combination of brushes and purnu (wooden sticks for
dotting) to create her simply composed yet highly compelling compositions.
Her paintings often feature large swathes of classic desert shades—orange,
red, brown and yellow—contrasted against areas of cool blues, echoing the
manner in which life-giving waters cut across the harsh desert landscape

• Artist: Deborah Young
• Title: Minyma Tjukurrpa
• Size: 55.9 x 91.4cm

Deborah comes from a family of strong painters.

Deborah grew up in Tjukurla and has spent time in Melbourne and other major cities
painting. Deborah comes from a family of strong painters.

Her grandmother is Tjawina Porter and mother Elsa Young, both high-profile Tjarlirli
painters and strong Ngaanyatjarra lore women.

• Artist: Carol Giles
• Title: Ngayaku Ngurra Wilurrara
• Size: 30.5 x 40.6cm

Carol is an artist from the Giles family, who are prominent artists and cultural
knowledge keepers in the region.

As a child, Carol was taken to into the Warburton mission with her family and later they
walked to Docker River. While Carol previously lived in Tjukurla community in the
Ngaanyatjarra lands, she now resides in Kaltukatjara (Docker River) to access
essential dialysis treatment. Carol's mother's Country is called Pilge and her father's
Country is between Kurlkurta and south-west of Kurlkurta.

Artist: Bob Gibson

Title: Patjantja

Size: 30.5 x 40.6cm

Bob is an internationally recognised Tjukurla artist known for bold, energetic
paintings connected to Country.

Meet Bob

Bob Gibson is one of Tjarlirli's most recognisable artists - bold, funny, full of energy,
and completely himself. His paintings have the same feeling: big colour, quick
movement, strong Country and a bit of Bob's unmistakable spark.

Bob was born at Papunya in 1974 and later moved with his family to Tjukurla, where he
began painting with Tjarlirli Art in 2007. His mother, Mary Gibson, is also a leading
Tjarlirli artist, with Country at Kulkurta. Bob's father's Country is near Patjarr, on the
edge of the Gibson Desert.

Country, family and story

Bob paints his father's Country at Patjantja, a remote place in the Pintupi lands near the
Gibson Desert. He received permission to paint this Country, and that permission sits
behind the strength of the work. These are not just bright paintings - they are paintings
grounded in family, Country and Tjukurrpa.

At the same time, Bob's paintings feel very much alive in the present. They do not sit
quietly. They move, wobble, twist and jump. They carry old stories through a visual
language that is direct, fresh and full of energy.