JIMMY BAKER - KANPIKU TJUKUPA
JIMMY BAKER
KANPIKU TJUKUPA, 2008
92.5 x 90 cm
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
REGION
APY Lands, NT
PROVENANCE
Maruku Arts, NT Cat No. 3924
Private Collection, NSW
STORY
Jimmy Baker was a senior Pitjantjatjara man who lived at Kanpi an outstation on the APY lands in the north of South Australia. He was renowned as a Ngankari or traditional healer and highly skilled carver of men's traditional implements before becoming a painter.
This work is about the Emus ancestors of his country at Kanpi. The Emu was Jimmy's totem animal. They travelled a long way to get to this site where they drank their fill before moving on. Here they ate mistletoe berries and other berries, caterpillars, and native cress. In this painting Jimmy shows the camps of the Emu and the waterholes they visited along with their travelling tracks. Kanpi is also an important site of the Piltati Dreaming which relates the story of two couples who turn into Water Serpents.
ARTIST PROFILE
