Tjunkaya Tapaya (born 1947) is an Aboriginal Australian

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

. She is most recognised for her

batik Batik is a dyeing technique using wax Resist dyeing, resist. The term is also used to describe patterned textiles created with that technique. Batik is made by drawing or stamping wax on a cloth to prevent colour absorption during the dyein ...

work and is one of the best-known batik artists in Australia. Her works also include acrylic paintings,

weaving Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal ...

, fibre sculpture,

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porce ...

wood carving Wood carving (or woodcarving) is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool (knife) in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculpture, ...

and

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proces ...

Early life

Tapaya is a member of 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 ...

people. She was born in 1947 in the desert in the far northwest 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 ...

. Her mother had walked from Walytjitjata, in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

, and arrived at

Ernabella Pukatja (formerly Ernabella, ) is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia, comprising one of the six main communities on "The Lands" (the others being Amata, Pipalyatjara, Fregon/Kaltjiti ...

Mission shortly after Tapaya's birth. Ernabella was run by

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Miss ...

at the time, and Tjunkaya grew up there.

Career

The craft room at Ernabella Mission was established in 1948 and nurtured the artistic talents of Tapaya and other children and adults living on the mission. The craft room taught spinning and weaving originally but later added batik and painting to its activities, and later still became a professionally run Aboriginal-owned incorporated arts enterprise known as Ernabella Arts, after the mission was closed and the land returned to its traditional Pitjantjatjara owners. Like most early artists in her community, Tjunkaya's original style came from ''milpatjunanyi'' – an ancient

Western Desert In Egypt, the Western Desert is an area of the Sahara that lies west of the river Nile, up to the Libyan border, and south from the Mediterranean Sea to the border with Sudan. It is named in contrast to the Eastern Desert which extends east fro ...

practice of drawing in the sand to tell stories to children. This is the basis of the classic Ernabella "''walka''". Ernabella women began to be taught batik making in 1971. In 1974, Ernabella Arts sent Tapaya to

Yogyakarta Yogyakarta is the capital city of the Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by Hamengkubuwono, a monarchy, Yogyakarta is regarded as an importan ...

with several other Pitjantjatjara women to learn more about making batik from

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

artists. Tapaya became one of the best-known batik artists in Australia.

Style and themes

Apart from batik, Tapaya's work also include acrylic paintings,

, fibre sculpture,

, and

. Since 2015 she has concentrated on painting and

tjanpi ''Triodia'' is a large genus of hummock grass endemic to Australia. The species of this genus are known by the common name spinifex, although they are not a part of the coastal genus '' Spinifex''. Many soft-leaved ''Triodia'' species were form ...

sculpture, but more recently recommenced ceramics. Most of Tapaya's paintings depict places and events from her family's dreaming stories. Her batik work is of the classic Ernabella style, which eschews the Indonesian use of repeated block printed designs in favour of hand-drawn freehand designs or "''walka''". These "''walka''" are pure design and do not refer to, or contain reference to, dreamings or "''tjukurpa''".

Other activities

Tapaya was deputy chair of the Ernabella art centre, and leader of the Nintintjaku Project, a teaching project working with Ernabella Anangu School and the Ernabella NPY youth team. She has written extensively in

, and has developed a bilingual children's book. Her essays have been published in several exhibition catalogues, including the 2017

Desert Mob Desert Mob is Central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limite ...

and

Tarnanthi Tarnanthi (pronounced tar-nan-dee) is a Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art held in Adelaide, South Australia, annually. Presented by the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) in association with the South Austra ...

catalogues.

Recognition and awards

In 2009 Tapaya won the "Me and My Toyota Art Prize". In 2011 and 2012 Tapaya's work was selected as a finalist in the Togart Contemporary Art Award, and in 2012 her ''tjulpu'' (bird) tjanpi sculptures were selected for exhibition in the

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award The National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA) is Australia's longest running Indigenous art award. Established in 1984 as the National Aboriginal Art Award by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin ...

s (NATSIAA). In 2016, a collaborative work to which she contributed was selected as a NATSIAA finalist. In 2018, Tapaya was the recipient of the Gladys Elphick Award for Lifetime Achievement. On 8 June 2020, in the 2020 Queen's Birthday Honours, Tapaya was awarded a

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of then ...

(OAM) in recognition of her service to Indigenous visual arts and the community. In 2021 she was a NATSIAA finalist. In 2022, she was nominated as OCPSE Leader of the Year in the Woman of the Year Awards (

SkyCity Adelaide Adelaide Casino, known commercially as SkyCity Adelaide, is a large casino and recreational venue on the north edge of the Adelaide city centre. Located in the heritage-listed Adelaide railway station building on North Terrace, Adelaide, the cas ...

, '' The Advertiser'', and '' Sunday Mail'')

Exhibitions and galleries

Tapaya's work has been shown in several

exhibitions An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition ...

in Australia and internationally. Tapaya has work in the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited art mu ...

, the

State Library of South Australia The State Library of South Australia, or SLSA, formerly known as the Public Library of South Australia, located on North Terrace, Adelaide, is the official library of the Australian state of South Australia. It is the largest public research li ...

, the

Queensland Gallery of Modern Art The Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) is an art museum located within the Queensland Cultural Centre in the South Bank precinct of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. Opened on 2 December 2006, the GOMA is Australia's l ...

, the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

, the

National Museum of Australia The National Museum of Australia (NMA), in the national capital Canberra, preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. It was formally established by the ''Nation ...

, the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, the

Scottish National Gallery The National (formerly the Scottish National Gallery) is the national art gallery of Scotland. It is located on The Mound in central Edinburgh, close to Princes Street. The building was designed in a neoclassical style by William Henry Play ...

Artbank Artbank is an Australian art rental program established in 1980 by the Australian Government. The program supports contemporary Australian Visual artists, artists by purchasing their Art, artworks and renting them to public and private sector cli ...

, and the Museum of Ethnology in

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

, Japan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tapaya, Tjunkaya 1947 births Living people 20th-century Australian women artists 20th-century Australian artists 20th-century ceramists 20th-century women textile artists 20th-century textile artists 21st-century Australian women artists 21st-century Australian artists 21st-century ceramists 21st-century women textile artists 21st-century textile artists Australian painters Australian women painters Artists from South Australia Pitjantjatjara people Australian weavers Australian printmakers Australian women printmakers Australian ceramicists Australian women ceramicists Australian Aboriginal artists Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia