MARINGKA BAKER - MINYMA KUTJARA (TWO SISTERS CREATION STORY)

 MARINGKA BAKER
MINYMA KUTJARA (TWO SISTERS CREATION STORY),  2009
122.5 x 91 cm
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
 
PROVENANCE
APY (Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara) Lands
Tjungu Palya, SAPat Corrigan Collection, NSWAccompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Tjungu Palya, SA 
 
STORY
Minmya Kutjara, the Two Sisters Creation story. The two sisters were travelling north together through this country, Irruntytju. The big sister was taking the little sister to meet her family for the first time. She had been raised by others and did not want to leave them. They walked and walked and walked, stopping to do Inma (sacred dancing and singing), to hunt and to sleep. They stopped at Ilkuwaratjara and cut a digging stick. That punu wood was very straight. The little sister was frightened and crying and the big sister told her stories and gave her a piggy-back to try and placate her. The journey is sometimes sung by women as they paint. Nuanced, multi-layered, and especially important for the women, some aspects of the story are only told in whispers. The places where the sisters travelled and rested can be traced through the desert, their actions often created landmarks. Near Irrunytju the sisters sat on two hills and made their hair belts in preparations for important womenā€™s business. They threw their wana (digging stick) creating the rockhole here.
 
EXHIBITED
The Corrigan Collection, SBS Studio's, 2012 - 2021Illustrated: Power + Colour: New Paintings from the Corrigan Collection of 21st Century Aboriginal Art, Jane Raffan, Macmillan Publishing, 2012, p.54-55