Rene Kulitja

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Rene Kulitja
Wanuny Kulitja
Qantas Boeing 737-800 Yananyi Dreaming Finney-2.jpg
Yananyi Dreaming at Adelaide Airport, 2005
Born1958
Ernabella, South Australia
NationalityFlag of Australia (converted).svg  Australian
OccupationArtist
Years active1990s – present
OrganizationWalkatjara Art Uluṟu
Maṟuku Arts Board
Notable work
Yananyi Dreaming
Style Western Desert painting, sculpture
Spouse(s)Richard Kulitja
Parent(s) Walter Pukutiwara, Topsy Tjulyata

Rene Kulitja (born 1958), also known as Wanuny Kulitja, is an Aboriginal Australian artist. She works with a range of media, including paint, glass and ceramics. Her most famous design is probably Yananyi Dreaming, which covers a Qantas Boeing 737.

Contents

Life

Early life

Rene was born in 1958, in Ernabella, South Australia. Her family are Pitjantjatjara people, and her Pitjantjatjara name is Wanuny. She grew up in northern South Australia, and then moved to Docker River following her marriage to Richard Kulitja. When Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park was handed back to traditional owners in 1985, the couple moved to Muṯitjulu to work in tourism. Rene became involved in arts and crafts at the women's centre there shortly after, and was a founding director of Walkatjara Art. [1] Richard became the manager of Aṉangu Tours. [2]

As an artist

During the mid-1990s, Kulitja worked with other women artists on the interior design of the park's cultural centre. She also took a course on glasswork techniques at the University of South Australia, along with three other women. After a successful exhibition of work made using these new skills, Kulitja and the other women received a commission from the Ayers Rock Resort at Yulara for a panel of glass decorated with traditional designs. [3]

In 2000, Kulitja was one of over 300 Aboriginal women from Central Australia to perform at the Opening Ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games in Sydney. [1]

In 2002, Kulitja worked with Balarinji Studio in Sydney to design the exterior of a Qantas Boeing 737-800 fuselage. The design she painted was of Uluṟu. It was based on traditional designs and sacred Dreaming legends. [4] The fleet was launched on 14 February 2002, with a special ceremony performed by singers and dancers from Muṯitjulu. The word (y)ananyi means "to go" or "to travel" in Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara. It was the third Qantas aircraft to be painted in an Aboriginal design. [4] Kulitja did something similar again in 2010, when a semi-trailer was decorated with another of her designs as part of a national roadshow by Maṟuku Arts. [5] [6]

Community work

Kulitja has held an important position within the Pitjantjatjara–Yankunytjatjara community for several years. [7] She has been a member of both the Muṯitjulu Community Council and the Board of Management of Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park. In 2006, she became the chairperson of Maṟuku Arts. [1] In October 2007, she was elected for a two-year term as a director on the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Women's Council. [8]

As a community advocate, Kulitja has campaigned to address the issues of petrol sniffing in Aboriginal communities in central Australia. Her own family has been deeply affected by the problem. [9] [10]

Art

Kulitja works with a range of media, including paint, glass, ceramics and tjanpi (desert grass) [1] through the Tjanpi Desert Weavers social enterprise at NPY Women's Council. She makes paintings, woven baskets, and glass and ceramic sculptures. Her work has been shown in many exhibitions across Australia. It has also been exhibited in Belgium and Japan. [1]

An example of her glass work is shown in the National Gallery of Australia. It is a coolamon made of glass (rather than the traditional wood), [7] and has been exhibited in several Australian galleries. [11] Examples of her paintings are held in the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka. [12] Kulitja is also known for making traditional-style jewellery using modern techniques and media. Some of her jewellery work was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show when Winfrey visited Uluṟu in December 2010. [13]

Related Research Articles

Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park Protected area in the Northern Territory, Australia

Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia. The park is home to both Uluru and Kata Tjuta. It is located 1,943 kilometres (1,207 mi) south of Darwin by road and 440 kilometres (270 mi) south-west of Alice Springs along the Stuart and Lasseter Highways. The park covers 1,326 square kilometres (512 sq mi) and includes the features it is named after: Uluru and, 40 kilometres (25 mi) to its west, Kata Tjuta. The location is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for natural and cultural landscape.

Uluru Large sandstone isolated mount in Australia

Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock and officially gazetted as Uluru / Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone formation in the centre of Australia. It is in the southern part of the Northern Territory, 335 km (208 mi) southwest of Alice Springs.

Pitjantjatjara Aboriginal people of Central Australia

The Pitjantjatjara are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible.

Mutitjulu Town in the Northern Territory, Australia

Mutitjulu is an Aboriginal Australian community in the Northern Territory of Australia located at the eastern end of Uluṟu. It is named after a knee-shaped water-filled rock hole at the base of Uluṟu, and is located in the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park. Its people are traditional owners and joint managers of the park with Parks Australia. At the 2011 census, Mutitjulu had a population of 296, of which 218 (71.2%) were Aboriginal.

Aṉangu

Aṉangu is the name used by members of several Aboriginal Australian groups, roughly approximate to the Western Desert cultural bloc, to describe themselves. The term, which embraces several distinct "tribes" or peoples, in particular the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara groups, is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable: [ˈaɳaŋʊ].

Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Local government area in South Australia

Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara, also known as APY, APY Lands or the Lands, is a large, sparsely-populated local government area (LGA) for Aboriginal people, located in the remote north west of South Australia. Some of the aṉangu (people) of the Western Desert cultural bloc, in particular Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra peoples, inhabit the Lands.

Amata, South Australia Town in South Australia

Amata, formerly known as Musgrave Park, is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia, comprising one of the six main communities on "The Lands".

Indulkana is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia, comprising one of the six main communities on "The Lands". At the 2016 Australian census, Indulkana had a population of 256.

The Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Women's Council is a community-based community organisation formed in 1980 delivering services to the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara women in the central desert region of Australia across the borders of the Northern Territory, South Australia, Western Australia with its headquarters in Alice Springs. It provides a range of community, family, research and advocacy services.

Jimmy Donegan is an Aboriginal Australian artist. His painting Papa Tjukurpa munu Pukara won the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2010. He speaks Pitjantjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra. His work is held in several major private galleries in Australia and Europe; the only major public gallery to hold one of his works is the National Gallery of Victoria.

Topsy Tjulyata is an Aboriginal artist from central Australia. She makes wooden objects, known in Western Desert languages as puṉu. She makes these by carving the wood and then engraving patterns into its surface with a burning wire. This technique is called pokerwork. The wood she uses is sourced locally from the area around Uluṟu, where she lives. She makes both decorative sculptures and traditional tools. The patterns engraved into the objects depict Tjukurpa, spiritual stories about creation ancestors from the Dreamtime.

Walter Pukutiwara was an Aboriginal artist from central Australia.

Pulya Taylor is an Aboriginal artist from central Australia. She makes wooden objects, known in the Western Desert as puṉu. She makes these by carving the wood and then engraving patterns into its surface with a burning wire. This technique is called pokerwork. The wood she uses is sourced locally from the area around Uluṟu, where she lives.

Malya Teamay is an Aboriginal Australian artist. He is also an administrator of Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park, serving as a member of its Board of Management. As an artist, Teamay works for Walkatjara Art Uluṟu. This art centre is part of the Uluṟu–Kata Tjuṯa Cultural Centre located inside the national park. Examples of Teamay's paintings are held in the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, and the Museum of Victoria.

The Katiti Aboriginal Land Trust is a land trust for a block of land in the southwest of the Northern Territory of Australia located in the locality of Petermann. It was created through the Katiti Land Claim in 1980. The trust's owners include Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara and Luritja people. The block of land is officially referred to as Northern Territory Portion 1818. It borders the larger Petermann Land Trust area and Uluṟu–Kata Tjuṯa National Park to the north and west, and two pastoral stations to the east and south: Curtin Springs and Mulga Park. The town of Yulara is excluded from the Land Trusts, and sits between the Katiti block and Uluṟu–Kata Tjuṯa National Park.

Ngangkari are the traditional healers of the Anangu, the Aboriginal peoples who live mostly in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara of South Australia and the Western Desert region, which includes parts of the Northern Territory and Western Australia. The word in the Arrernte languages of Central Australia is ngangkere. Ngangkari have been part of Aboriginal culture for thousands of years, and attend to the physical and psychic health of Anangu.

Tjanpi Desert Weavers is a social enterprise of the NPY Women’s Council, representing over 400 women from 26 unique communities in the NPY region. Tjanpi is the Pitjantjatjara word for a type of spinifex grass. The weavers harvest and weave local grasses and some other materials to create handmade works and pieces of art. In producing these works, which mostly consist of baskets, jewellery, beads and fibre sculpture, the enterprise encourages women's employment and economic independence.

Pantjiti Unkari McKenzie is a senior Pitjantjatjara woman from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. She has worked as an artist, film maker, actor, teacher, oral historian and recorder of cultural heritage, Ngangkari and as a senior law woman in her community. In 2019, she was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for her “service to the Indigenous community of the Northern Territory”.

Nyurpaya Kaika Burton OAM is an artist and educator from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands of Central Australia.

Betty Muffler is an Aboriginal Australian artist and ngangkari (healer). She is a senior artist at Iwantja Arts, in Indulkana in Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara, South Australia, known for a series of works on large linen canvases called Ngangkari Ngura .

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "2010-11 Director's Report". Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Women's Council. 12 December 2010. p. 17. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 February 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  2. ↑ Uniting Communities (12 October 2010). "APY Lands: dialysis forum in Umuwa". The Aṉangu Lands Paper Tracker. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  3. ↑ Johnson, Dianne (2002). Lighting the Way: Reconciliation Stories. Federation Press. pp. 30–31. ISBN   9781862874275.
  4. 1 2 "Flying Art". Qantas Airways. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  5. ↑ Bout, Marie (24 November 2010). "Road trains become giant Aboriginal artworks". ABC News. Alice Springs: Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  6. ↑ Korff, Jens (14 October 2012). "Aboriginal art in unusual places". Creative Spirits. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  7. 1 2 "Inner Worlds". Transparent Things. National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  8. ↑ "NPY Women's Council Directors' Biographies". Biographies. Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Women's Council. April 2009. Archived from the original on 12 September 2009.
  9. ↑ Tony Jones (presenter), Suzanne Smith (reporter) (16 May 2006). "Lateline sees petrol sniffing problem first-hand". Lateline. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ABC Local Radio.
  10. ↑ Hamish Robertson (presenter), Anne Barker (reporter) (5 January 2006). "Sounds of Summer: Indigenous community struggles with petrol addiction". PM. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ABC Local Radio.
  11. ↑ "Kulitja, Rene". Collection Online. National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  12. ↑ Wati Nyiru (1999; item #H0217498) and 7人姉妹の物語 (1999; item #H0217499). National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka.
  13. ↑ "Mantalanguru Urukutu - From the Desert to the Sea" (Press release). Waverley Council. January 2011. Archived from the original on 9 May 2012.
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