By: Marina Brown, Linda Puna, Pauline Wagin and Anita Pumani
Marina Pumani Brown, Anita Pumani, Pauline Wangin and Linda Puna have very distinct and unique approaches to paiting and it is through their mark-making each woman explores her relationship and knowledge attached to Antara and Maku Tjukurpa.
This is the first time these women have come together to tell their parts of a story as whole. From the bold maku (witchetty grub) painted by Linda Puna, central not only to her childhood but to Mimili and the Tjukurpa of the surrounding land, to the kapi (water) Anita Pumani works with understanding the importance it holds falling and flowing seasonally, filling and cleaning kapi tjukula (waterholes), moving over the landscape much as it does over the canvas. Paulina Wangin's distinct punu (tree branch) and puli (rocks) go back to important lessons she learnt from the mother, how to keep the kapi clean un ti the next rain, using the punu as a cover and the puli as a weight the kapi tjukula can be covered with, remaining protected from animals. Marina Pumani Brown's mingkulpa (bush tobacco) works its way up and around the canvas. It is after kapi pulka the land becomes so fertile and Anangu Tjuta travel to Antara and Paralpii to harvest mingkulpa, maku and gnurru (lollie tree).
The women's stories are interwoven, not only on the canvas but in community life. They live together in Mimili Community, home to 300 Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people who have been living in the area for millennia in harmony with nature and acting as custodians of the land and the Tjukurpa. Mimili was formerly known as Everard Park, which was a castle station that was returned to Aboriginal ownership through the 1981 AP Lands Act. Mimili Community was incorporated as an Aboriginal Community in 1975.