Tjayanka Woods (d. 2014) was a senior Pitjantjatjara artist and cultural custodian. Born near Kalaya Piti in South Australia, as a child she lived a semi-nomadic life, hunting goannas, lizards and emu and gathering bush foods, travelling by foot, on donkeys and camels and in trucks. Having woven tjanpi, hair and feathers from a young age, she made sculptural, wearable and practical objects, selling her works through the Tjanpi Desert Weavers enterprise. In 2001, she and other senior artists established Irrunytju Arts in Wingellina, a remote Aboriginal community at the edge of the Gibson Desert, where she began painting. She later moved to the Papulankutja community (or Blackstone), working with Papulankutja Artists and inspiring the younger women in the community. Her acrylic on canvas paintings depict the Minyma Kutjara tjukurpa (Two Sisters Dreaming) and the Kungkarrangkalpa (Seven Sisters story).
Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens' work is informed by dreamlike revelations of Country, but also issues of identity, gender politics, spiritualism and the environment. Dickens took this photograph of Mrs Woods in 2013, when the photographer spent a couple of weeks with her and other senior Pitjantjatjara artists researching the Seven Sisters story. The result of her visit was a multimedia work, Taking back the stars.
Gift of the artist 2019. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Karla Dickens/Copyright Agency, 2024
The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the
Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a
Reproduction request. For further information please contact
NPG Copyright.