Iyawi Wikilyiri Australian, Pitjantjatjara, c.9145-2016

Iyawi was born in the bush near Ernabella around 1945. She did some schooling at the Ernabella Mission before working in the craft room where traditional spinning skills were combined with new techniques to develop a small scale carpet making industry. Iyawi's mother was a Yankunytjatjara woman from Ernabella and her father was a Pitjantjatjara man from Pukura. Iyawi paints Pukura which is her father’s country and where she spent a lot of her childhood. Iyawi now lives with her husband Ginger Wikilyiri.

Iyawi WIkilyiri paints Pukara, an important Tjukurpa for Wati Kutjara, the two serpent men. These wanampi's are involved in creating landmarks across vast tracts of the desert from Pukara in the tri-state border region of Western Australia.

Her vibrantly coloured works depict a relationship to country that is very much alive. They represent a spiritual dimension that is not confined to the past, but is still active between the land, plants, animals, the people and ancestral beings.