Pmurlangkinya, we was going to have a look at this place. And this little bird she always fly around in Palm Valley. This little bird, titjarritjirra (willy-wagtail), she is like my skin, Mbitjana. Thepa arrkutja (woman bird), sister for Mbitjana. She come up to Pmurlangkinya from somewhere and she dance, dance, dance, dance, and she become stone, parta. She got a little head and little body. It’s not long way away, just round past tourist camp. We go past there and we see this stone.
Anita Ratara is a senior artist at Hermannsburg Potters and is highly regarded for her confident and colourful painting of Country. Anita was ‘born bush’ in the alukura (women’s camp) near Hermannsburg in 1943. She is the mother of prominent potter Hayley Coulthard. Anita’s youngest daughter Alizha is an emerging artist also working with the Hermannsburg Potters. She attended the Hermannsburg Mission school, and later went on to work in the clinic, teaching the young mothers who had children. She also recalls making moccasins, or ‘fancy work’, for the missionaries. As a young woman, Anita showed natural ability in the arts and crafts, teaching herself to paint from an early age. She recalls being taught pottery by Naomi Sharp in the early 1990s, when the pottery program was located at the outstations. Now at eighty years of age, Anita continues to dedicate herself to art and comes to work at the Pottery every day, inspiring and teaching younger artists and family members. Anita mostly depicts Palm Valley in her work, of which she is a Traditional Owner. Palm Valley is Anita’s grandfather’s Country, and she continues to assert her links with her Country through her art and to share her invaluable stories.
Desert Mob is presented annually in Mparntwe | Alice Springs on Arrernte Country.
On behalf of Desart’s staff and art centre members, the Executive Committee humbly and respectfully acknowledge the Arrernte Apmereke Artweye (Traditional Owners) and Kwertengerle (Traditional Managers) of Mparntwe.
Desart respectfully advises Aboriginal readers that this website may contain names, images and artworks of people who have passed away.
