Piltati

There were two sisters who married two brothers and they all lived together. One day the women went wandering and they went such a long way that they forgot about their husbands. Back at the camp, the two husbands were thinking, ‘Where are our wives?’ and they decided to go looking for them. One brother said to the other, ‘What should we become to go looking for them?’ and the other brother said ‘Why don’t we become Rainbow Serpents?’ And they travelled in the sky looking down for their wives. Finally they see them hunting for carpet snakes and they put something in the hole where the women were digging. The women find it and then dig another hole and once again the men have put something in there. And this is how the men lure the women back to Piltati where the men make the sisters transform into Wanampi, swallow them and keep .them in their throats. All four of them live together in the waterhole and still live there today.

 

Katrina Tjitayi was born and went to school in Pukatja (Ernabella). Her mother was one of the first Anangu teachers at Ernabella Anangu School in the 1940s. On leaving school Katrina studied at UniSA through the AnTEP program, obtaining a Bachelor of Education. She has worked in Anangu education for more than 20 years including as the Anangu School Improvement Coordinator. She first began painting at the art centre in late 2016, working initially in painting and then ceramics. Her work has been exhibited around Australia and overseas.