ANN NYANKULYA CLEARY-FARELL - SPOTTY TINKA

ANN NYANKULYA CLEARY-FARELL
SPOTTY TINKA,  2016
118 x 28 x 18 cm
Tjanpi (wild harvested grass), wool and raffia
 
PROVENANCE
Tjanpi Desert Weavers, Alice Springs, NT
Art Leven [formerly Cooee Art], Gadigal (Sydney, NSW), Sydney, NSW
 
STORY
Tjanpi artists live and work in the 26 remote communities of the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) lands, an area comparable to the size of Germany. The NPY lands cover approximately 350,000 square kms across the tri-state (WA, SA, NT) border region of Central Australia. Tjanpi employs two field officers to regularly travel to these communities and purchase artworks from the artists, supply art materials, hold skills development workshops and facilitate grass collecting trips. These trips also allow a number of other cultural maintenance activities to take place.
 
Baskets have been the most important forms for storing and carrying food and possessions among the essentially nomadic Australian Aboriginal people of the central Desert.