Paarpakani (Take flight)

Iluwanti Ken
Pitjantjatjara people, South Australia
c 1944

Naomi Kantjuriny
Pitjantjatjara people, South Australia
1944

Kunmanara (Niningka) Lewis
Pitjantjatjara people, Northern Territory
1945 – 2020
Rene Kulitja
Pitjantjatjara people, South Australia
1958

(Nyurpaya) Kaika Burton
Pitjantjatjara people, South Australia
1949 – 2023

Paniny Mick
Pitjantjatjara people, South Australia
1 January 1939 – 24 February 2022

Tjunkaya Tapaya
Pitjantjatjara people, South Australia
1947

Yaritji Tingila Young
Pitjantjatjara people, South Australia
1956


Paarpakani (Take flight)
2011
raffia, minnarri grass, buffel grass, wire, wood, poly-raffia, string, emu feathers, twigs, wool, fake flowers, bush turkey feathers, alpaca wool, second hand fabric, plastic rake, felted wool, branches
Place made
near Amata, Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands, South Australia
Medium
raffia, minnarri grass, buffel grass, wire, wood, poly-raffia, string, emu feathers, twigs, wool, fake flowers, bush turkey feathers, alpaca wool, second hand fabric, plastic rake, felted wool, branches
Credit line
Gift of Margaret Bennett, Vivienne Bolaffi, Elizabeth Finnegan OAM, Lipman Karas, Shane Le Plastrier, Sue Tweddell and Ann Vanstone through the Art Gallery of South Australia Collectors Club 2012
Accession number
20126S10(a-g)
Signature and date
Not signed. Not dated.
Media category
Sculpture
Collection area
Australian sculptures - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Copyright
© the artists courtesy of Tjanpi Desert Weavers, NPY Women’s Council
Image credit
Photo: Grant Hancock

  • Nine minyma pumpa (senior women) from Amata and Pukatja (Ernabella) in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands have extended their basketry practices to the realm of figurative sculpture. Using tjanpi (grass) and found objects, the artists have created two installations, Paarpakani (Take flight) and Tjanpi punu (trees), made in 2011 at a bush camp in the Mann Ranges, near Amata. 

    Although these works display a sense of playfulness, they also express new artistic ideas, at the same time reflecting on and interpreting the Tjukurpa (ancestral stories and beliefs) of these women, including Wati Warluwurru (Wedge-tail Eagle Man) and his two wives Minyma Kaarnka (Crow Lady) and, in Paarpakani, on Minyma Kakalyaalya (Cockatoo Lady). In Tjanpi punu the trees are home to the birds depicted in Paarpakani, in which the ngangkari (traditional healers) sit atop the eagles as they soar across the skies looking for those in need of healing. These trees also relate to each of the women’s individual Tjukurpa, and on a broader note tell of the importance of trees in Aboriginal culture.


    Gloria Strzelecki, Associate Curator of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art

  • [Book] AGSA 500.