Tjala Arts, formerly known as Minymaku Arts, is an
Aboriginal Australian
Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands.
Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...
-owned and -managed arts centre located in the remote community of
Amata
According to Roman mythology, Amata (also called Palanto) was the wife of Latinus, king of the Latins, and the mother of their only child, Lavinia. In the Aeneid of Virgil, she commits suicide during the conflict between Aeneas and Turnus over ...
in the
Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in the remote north-west of
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
.
History
Tjala Arts was started by women from Amata in 1997 and was originally called Minymaku Arts (meaning "Women's Arts"), until it was renamed in 2006 to better reflect the increasing involvement of men in the operation of the centre. Tjala is the
Pitjantjatjara
The Pitjantjatjara (; or ) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are v ...
word for
honey ant, which is both a traditional
bush food
Bush tucker, also called bush food, is any food native to Australia and historically eaten by Indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but it can also describe any native flora, fauna, or fungi used for culinary or medicinal ...
and one of the
creation stories
A creation myth or cosmogonic myth is a type of cosmogony, a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it., "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and its inhabitants came to be. Cre ...
for the Amata area.
Description
Tjala Arts supports and showcases the work of local artists, including work from the homelands surrounding Amata, in the
Musgrave Ranges
Musgrave Ranges is a mountain range in Central Australia, straddling the boundary of South Australia ( Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara) and the Northern Territory ( MacDonnell Shire), extending into Western Australia. It is between the Gre ...
.
Tjala Arts prioritises cultural strength and ownership. The collective believes the power in the art is "not for sale" and not for interpretation without their permission. This ownership is important to maintaining and building cultural strength and generating job and income. As senior artist Frank Young said: "Nganampa Art Nganana walytjanguku Business palyanu. Munula Tjukurpa kunpu kanyini - Our Art. Our Business. Keeps our culture strong".
Tjala artists use a variety of mediums, including
acrylic paint
Acrylic paint is a fast-drying paint made of pigment suspended in acrylic polymer emulsion and plasticizers, silicone oils, defoamers, stabilizers, or metal soaps. Most acrylic paints are water-based, but become water-resistant when dry. Dep ...
on linen, punu (wood), tjanpi (fibre weaving; often in conjunction with
Tjanpi Desert Weavers
Tjanpi Desert Weavers is a social enterprise of the NPY Women's Council, representing over 400 women from 26 unique communities in the NPY (Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara) region. Tjanpi is the Pitjantjatjara word for a type o ...
) and new media arts including photography, film and sound work.
Tjala artists are known for their energetic work and rich colourful palette and, in their work, artists explore their
Tjukurpa
The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal mythology. It was originally used by Francis Gillen, quickly adopted by his ...
(Dreaming).
Tjala Arts is part of the
APY Art Centre Collective
Annual percentage yield (APY) is a normalized representation of an interest rate, based on a compounding period of one year. APY figures allow a reasonable, single-point comparison of different offerings with varying compounding schedules. Howev ...
.
Tjala artists have been acquired by many high-profile collectors and prestigious Australian cultural institutions including;
The National Gallery of Australia,
The Art Gallery of New South Wales,
The National Gallery of Victoria and
Art Gallery of South Australia
The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as the National Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located in Adelaide. It is the most significant visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of ...
.
Artists
Artists represented by, or previously represented by Tjala Arts include:
* Freda Brady
*
Hector Burton
*
Nyurpaya Kaika Burton
Nyurpaya Kaika Burton OAM is an artist and educator from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands of Central Australia.
Life
Nyurpaya Kaika Burton was born in 1949 at Atila near Mount Connor and grew up at Pukutja/Ernabella.
Burton's ...
*
Wawiriya Burton
Wawiriya Burton ( – 2021) was an Australian Aboriginal artist. She is known for her acrylic paintings. Her paintings are representations of sacred stories from the Dreamtime. Like other Aboriginal artists, the representations are blurred (or ...
* Rhonda Dick
*
Ray Ken
Ray or RAY may refer to:
Fish
* Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea
* Ray (fish fin anatomy), the bony or horny spine on ray-finned fish
Science and mathematics
* Half-line (geometry) or ray, half of a line split at an ...
*
Sandra Ken
Sandra or SANDRA may refer to:
People
* Sandra (given name)
* Sandra (singer) (born 1962), German pop singer
* Margaretha Sandra (1629–1674), Dutch soldier
* Sandra (orangutan), who won the legal right to be defined as a "non-human person"
Pla ...
* Sylvia Ken
*
Tjungkara Ken
Tjungkara Ken (born 1 October 1969) is a Pitjantjatjara artist from Amata, South Australia, in the APY lands. She began painting in 1997, when Minymaku Arts was opened by the women of Amaṯa. She started painting professionally in 2008. By that ...
*
Barbara Mbitjana Moore
Barbara Mbitjana Moore (born 1964) is an Anmatyerre woman who grew up in Ti-Tree in the Northern Territory, moving later to Amata in South Australia's Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. In April 2003, Moore began painting at Ama ...
*
Tiger Palpatja
Tiger Palpatja ( - 16 April 2012) was an Australian Aboriginal artist from the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara, Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands.
Life
Tiger was born around 1920 (though the exact year is not known). He was ...
*
Maringka Tunkin
Maringka Tunkin (born 1959) is a Pitjantjatjara artist from Central Australia.
Life
Tunkin was born at Mulga Park in the south-west of the Northern Territory, near the South Australian border in 1959. She is the daughter of Mick Wikilyiri, who ...
*
Ruby Tjangawa Williamson
Ruby Tjangawa Williamson ( – September 2014) was a Pitjantjatjara artist from Amaṯa, in central Australia. She made acrylic paintings and traditional wood carvings, and was one of the most successful artists from the region. Her paintings h ...
* Anwar Young
* Frank Young
*
Yaritji Young
Yaritji Young (born c. 1956) is a Pitjantjatjara woman artist from Pukatja, a community within the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands and she now lives at Rocket Bore; a homeland north of Amata. Young is a significant Australian Aborig ...
References
Further reading
*
External links
* {{official website, https://tjalaarts.com.au/about
Australian artist groups and collectives