MINYMA KUTJARA, 2011
NELLIE STEWART
synthetic polymer paint on linen
200.0 x 200.0 cm
bears inscription verso: artist's name, date and Tjungu Palya Artists cat. TPNS11175
Tjungu Palya Artists, Nyapari, South Australia
Private collection, Sydney
Nellie Stewart was a senior Pitjantjatjara woman, born in her father's country at Pipalyatjara in the Tomkinson Ranges, South Australia sometime in the late 1930s. Her bold and colourful paintings draw on her cultural connection to country as a senior custodian and authoritative teller of the women’s Tjukurpa (Dreaming stories) from this region, particularly the Minyma Kutjara (Two Sisters Creation story). As a young girl Nellie attended school at the Ernabella Mission and later worked in Alice Springs teaching Pitjantjatjara language with her husband. She first began painting in 2007 when she moved to Nyapari with her family.
Minyma Kutjara, 2011 incorporates landmarks shaped during the epic journeys and activities of the creation ancestors. Here the two sisters are at Nyapari during the creation time, the elder sister is teaching the younger sister ceremonial law. They are singing and dancing together as they travel to Punuwara before moving on to Docker River in the Northern Territory. With a limited palette of reds, yellows, and pinks, Nellie Stewart uses a technique of over-painting a dark background, and uses brushstrokes that evoke ceremonial body painting designs, handling her brush in a manner akin to the way women use their fingers to smear layers of paint onto the bodies of ceremonial dancers.
CRISPIN GUTTERIDGE