Tuwan

$1,800.00

Nyangatja painting ngayuku ngura Tuwan Tjuntjuntjara munkara alinytjara. Tuwan milmilpa kanyanyi Tjulpu Tjuta Tjukurpa ka Wati Nyii Nyii Tjuta Euclalakutu munu tjanampa kulata tjutaku kapingka tjura ka kapi pala katuni patila.

This painting is of my country north of Tjuntjuntjara called Tuwan. Tuwan holds the sacred Tjulpu Tjuta (Many Birds) Tjukurpa and follows a group of Wati Nyii Nyii (Zebra Finch Men) who travel to Eucla and place their many spears in the water to hold back the rising sea.

In this work Ian Rictor has focused in on the trees that define Tuwan, painting the Ngalta (Desert Kurrajong) a significant tree in the story of Tjulpu Tjuta.

Ian Rictor was born at Artulin/Tuwan and is a custodian and traditional owner of Tuwan – a significant site in the heart of Spinifex Country. Ian walked from water source to food source and beyond. This was a cultural and family existence for survival in an arid land before his family were located and ‘brought in’ by relatives in1986, and they are the last of the known Aboriginal people to have remained living traditionally in the Great Victoria Desert. Ian’s compositions centre on the sites he depicts and each are multi layered with meaning. Many are surrounded with secrecy and only surface details can be recorded. His site of Tuwan is where the Tjulpu Tjuta (Many Birds) Tjukurpa manifests. This is an epic Mens’ Creation narrative that follows the journey south of the Wati Nyii Nyii (Zebra Finch Men) where they place their many spears to save the world from being inundated with floodwaters. In1997when the Spinifex Arts Project first began Ian was keen to join the group of painters. Ian is a skilled hunter, bush mechanic and craftsman who lives in Tjuntjuntjara Community with his extended family.