Patju Presley Stanley Australian, Pitjantjatjara, b. 1945

Patju Presley was born in the 1940s at Itaratjara, an important site between to the community settlement of Watarru and Kalayapitiin the Great Victoria Desert. He is a senior Pitjantjatjara Law man with great knowledge of the geography of the Western Desert and the associated Tjukurpa. His intimate knowledge of the country is directly related to survival in this beautiful but sometimes harsh environment learned from the generations of hisancestors. Connections between the Land, the provider offood, water and shelter and the Tjukurpa a spiritual understanding of the world are finely interwoven in his paintings, creating works of an elegant abstraction. Each work is related to a specific site and ancestral beings and is strongly based on his experience and perception of the Law and the Land. When he was a young child he lived a traditional lifestyle walking along Tjukurpa tracks that linked sacred sites and water sources. From the tjilpis (old men) he learnt the ways of life in the desert and Anangu social order, law, culture, Tjukurpa and ceremony. Patju first learnt aboutChristianity from Mr Wade, the missionary who came to the desert on camel preaching the Bible and giving out tea and damper. When the mission was established Patju spent sometime there learning English to read and write hymns and Bible stories. Patju trained to be a preacher at the mission at Ernabella. He isalso a strong cultural man who practices traditional cultural business and inma (ceremonial singing and dancing), carves punu (ceremonial and utilitarian objects )and hunts malu (kangaroo), kalaya (emu), kipara (bush turkey) and rabbit. Patjuresides at Tjuntjuntjara Communitiy with his wife Ivy Laidlaw. In his paintings Patju refers to many of the Tjukurpa of the country of the Great Victoria Desert including the Wati Kipara (Bush Turkey), Wati Kutjara (Two Water-Snake Men), Kalaya (Emu),Wati Pira (Moon Man) and Minyma Kutjara (Two Sisters). His images are visual representations of the epic journeys and creation stories of the country. References to important landforms, rockholes and Tjukurpa tracks implicitly evoke the tjukuritjabeings (of the dreaming), their interactions and activities. References to features inthe country by desert artists are heavily loaded with complex symbolic meanings and interconnected layers of cultural references.