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Kungkarangkalpa (Seven Sisters Tjukurpa)
$5,500.00
Tjukurpala wangkanyi panya Minyma Tjapanpatjara. Minyma Tjapan. Minyma paluṟu tjana ngurangka nyinangi, tjanampa ngurangka. Wiltja tjanampa wiṟunya, munuya pukuḻpa nyinapai wiltja nyarangka. Tjanampa waṟu nguṟurpa kampapai kaya waṟungka itingka kaputu-kaputu ngaripai. Wati kura paluṟu nguriṟa-nguriṟa ma-nyangu, munta nyangatjampal nyinanyi,nyangatja puyu pantinyi. Kaya palunya nyangu ngangkarku wati panya paluṟu nyanga ngalya-nyinara nyanganyi, Wati Nyirulu nyakupai tjananya. Wati-pakaṉu ngura nyara nganaku anu, nganaku anu, Kulyurukuya. Kulyurulaya ma-nyinakatingu parpakantjanu. Munuya Kulyurulanguṟu panya paluṟuṯu tjananya kura palyaṉu ngulutjingaṟa Kupulu wakura ngulutjinganingi kayanku pakaṟa walawinki ma-pitjangi wira mantji-mantjira wana tjaliṟa walawinki tarararingu. Kalanku kuwari kumpiṟa mulapa ara parariltaya panya parari panya kumpiṟa munu anu wiluṟara ka nganampa tjukurpa ngaṟanyi Kuṟu Aḻa, Kulyuru, Mimanyampinya.
We are going to tell a story of the Seven Women. The Seven Ladies. Seven of them stayed around their own home country. They had a nice set-up at their camp. They were always happy at their place. They had a fire going in the centre and they would camp around the fire area. The man who searched for them everywhere ended up finding them. The bad man. He smelt their smoke from the fire. And the sisters spotted him and said among themselves, ‘Oh look, that same man is over there sitting and eyeing us from a distance.’ The man’s name is Nyiru. When they would run and hide away from him, he would still track them down. After being in one place for a while, they left for a place called Kulyuru. They flew away and landed in Kulyuru and again he chased them up and scared them again. He would chase them up, swinging his hitting stick. They would gather up their belongings and run. They then left for a faraway place, still hiding from the man. They went a long way, far away towards the west. And our story lies only around Kuṟu Aḻa, Kulyuru and Mimanyampi.
Jennifer Nginyaka Mitchell was born in c1955 at Kala Tjuti near Irrunytju (Wingelina) in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands. Kala Tjuti is an important place culturally as it is the site of the Emu dreaming place and the Wati Kutjara dreaming story. As a child she travelled across the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, and APY Lands with her family and was near Maralinga when atomic rocket testing was conducted by the British, American and Australian Defense Forces in the 1950s. Her grandfather became ill from the radioactive fallout and died soon after. Having returned from Oodnadatta, Jennifer and her family hid away in wiltja (bush shelters) at Watinuma to be safe from the bomb. Jennifer remembers hiding during the day, only coming out at night when the smoke was gone. She said her eyes stung after the bomb. They were helped by Mr MacDougall, a government official, who made sure the Aboriginal people were well away, over the range, from the test site. Jennifer became a senior custodian of the Kuru Ala Seven Sisters site after her mother Eileen Tjayanka Woods passed away. She started making tjanpi (grass) baskets in 1995 and has been painting since 2008. Jennifer is also an accomplished basket-maker and sculptor (animated dogs and caricatures of people) out of wool and grass.
