The Artists



IVY LAIDLAW - The Minyma Kutjara Arts Project

Ivy Laidlaw, a Pitjantjatjara artist, was born around 1945 at a rockhole called Walpapulka near Irrunytju. Her mother was ill and unable to care for her when she was a baby so Ivy and her sister spent much of their early childhood at the mission at Warburton. Ivy spent some time at school and learnt English, hymns and Bible stories. Ivy frequently went back to her country with her family where she learnt tjukurpa and how to survive in the desert. When she grew up Ivy worked in the mission bakery and clinic before returning to Irrunytjy where she married Patju Presley who she knew from childhood days in the mission. 

Ivy was a founding member of Irrunytju Arts and is a highly regarded sculpture, weaver and storyteller. As well as developing her own art practise and participating in exhibitions, Ivy worked at Irrunytju Arts supprting the cultural development program and bush trips. Ivy ran workshops and taught emerging artists how to weave, where to find organic material; and how to make dyes, resins and traditional medicines. Some of Ivy’s paintings depict important tjukurpa relating to women’s business which are carefully stored and only taken out to teach the young women. Other’s illustrate dramatic tjukurpa narratives, structed like fables with strong moral overtones.

In May 2013  Ivy Laidlaw (with Evonne Lewis and Cynthia Burke) was selected  to represent The Tjanpi Desert Weavers at "Fingers and Petals - The Handmade Flower Show". As well as their work being exhibited they were involved in running flower-making workshops over two days as part of the event. 



TJAWINA ROBERTS  - The Minyma Kutjara Arts Project

Tjawina Roberts, a Pitjantjatjara artist, was born around 1940 at Kata Yurlu near Blackstone. After her mother died, Tjawina, her sister Karrika Belle Davidson and brother Tjuruparu Watson were brought to the Warburton mission by her family. There she learnt prayers, hymns and Bible stories; to read and write; and to sew and do work in the garden and kitchen. She was also introduced to drawing materials such as pencils, inks, crayons and chalk. During the holidays, especially over the early summer period when rockholes were full of water, Tjawina left the mission with her family to walk back to her country. She was taught how to survive in the desert and the tjukurpa by the minima pampa (old woman).  

Many members of her extended family settled at Patinintjarra, near to where Papulankutja (Blackstone) was later established in the 1980s. When she left school Tjawina moved to Patinintjarra and camped at the edge of the mining camp with other anangu. She spent some time at the government settlement at Musgrove Park, now the community at Amata, married, and had three children Jocelyn, Dino and Renita. Tjawina, her husband and tjitji traveled to Irrunytju where they lived in the camp near the small nickel and chrysoprase mine. Tjawina’s husband worked at the mine for food rations. To supplement the rations and bushfood that they hunted and gathered, Tjawina made punu and traded them for butter, jam and tinned food at the miners shop. Tjawina lives in Irrunytju with her children and grandchildren and extended members of the family. She was a member of the Irrunytju Arts Advisory Committee and Irrunytju Community council. She is a powerful speaker and a great advocate for the art centre and community. 

Tjawina still carves punu artefacts which she now trades with the regional cooperative Maraku Arts and Crafts and weaves fine, perfectly shaped tjanpi baskets with spinifex, natural and dyed raffia. In her paintings Tjawina engages with ancient tjukurpa as well as contemporary issues. 











 JENNIFER MITCHELL  - Papulankutja Artists


Jennifer was born in 1955 and is one of Blackstone's artistic Gems. Jennifer has been painting since 2008 and is a natural colourist and has a delicate touch with her unique dotting style.  Jennifer has developed as a painter from strength to strength incorporating what works well in a work and finding new ways to strengthen what works. With this process of development Jennifer has created a unique style of painted dabbles with a brush which are overlaid with a delicate dotting from the sharp end of a stick. She paints the country, looking down from the sky, imagining the delicate dappling of the spinifex and grass overlaying the hardness of the rock surfaces beneath. You really do get a sense of flying over the country, looking down at the painting while standing above it, and you get the sense of wanting to 'jump in' to the country. Jennifer knows this country well, the clay pans, the hills, the dry creek beds and soaks and the sand dunes and with this knowledge she is transported back to country as she paints it from above. Painting is a way of life for Jennifer and day by day she crosses lines between painting country and visiting country and the two become one with the  power of country being felt within the delicate dotting of her work.



ROMA PETERMAN  - The Minyma Kutjara Arts Project

Roma Nyutjangka Peterman, an artist belonging to the Pitjantjatjara language and cultural group, was born in 1959 at Wilo rockhole, on the kanyala (euro kangaroo) tjukurpa track. Roma spent her early years at Ernabella mission in South Australia and then travelled by camel to Warburton in Western Australia, where she went to school and learnt to read and write. Irrunytju is her grandfather’s brother’s country. Roma works at Minyma Kutjara and with Ngaanyatjarra Media presenting a radio program of local music and news. She continues to practise traditional cultural activities including hunting and gathering bushfoods, singing and dancing inma.

Roma has been taught to paint and tell the stories of the tjukurpa by the minyma pampa (old women), especially Kuntjil Cooper. Roma is a powerful story-teller and her paintings focus on the drama, graphic and emotional intensity of incidents and relationships in tjukurpa narratives.


TJAYANKA WOODS  - Papulankutja Artists

Tjayanka Woods, a senior Pitjantjatjara artist, was born around 1935, near Kalaya Pirti (Emu Water) near Mimili and Wataru, South Australia, As a child she  lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle in the bush with her parents, frequently camping at Kalaya Pirti where they would hunt ngintaka (goanna), tinka (lizards), kalaya (emu) and gather bushfoods such as kampurarpa (desert raisin), ili (figs) and maku (wood grubs).
Tjayanka refers to the Minyma Kutjara tjukurpa in her paintings. They are structured like mud-maps, tracing the journey of the two sisters around the perimeter of the canvas showing  the rock-holes and land formations created by the sisters as they walked through the country together. Incorporated into the paintings is the flight of the eagle, her grandfather, who flies above the path of the sisters. "This is my father's country close up to Irrunytju. The two sisters were travelling through this country. My grandfather, he is this eagle in my painting. You can see where he flew, she will tell you.

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