Tjanpi punu (trees)

Mary Katatjuku Pan
Pitjantjatjara people, South Australia
c.1944

Iluwanti Ken
Pitjantjatjara people, South Australia
c 1944

Naomi Kantjuriny
Pitjantjatjara people, South Australia
1944
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

Yaritji Tingila Young
Pitjantjatjara people, South Australia
1956


Tjanpi punu (trees)
2012
Tjanpi, acacia branches, chicken wire, acrylic wool, unspun sheep's wool, wipia (emu feathers), raffia, paper raffia, plastic flowers and leaves, gumnuts, pillow stuffing, mulga stumps, wire, synthetic polymer paint, second hand clothing
Place made
near Amata, Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands, South Australia
Medium
Tjanpi, acacia branches, chicken wire, acrylic wool, unspun sheep's wool, wipia (emu feathers), raffia, paper raffia, plastic flowers and leaves, gumnuts, pillow stuffing, mulga stumps, wire, synthetic polymer paint, second hand clothing
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
20126S11(a-h)
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
Photos: 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