Tjanpi Desert Weavers
The Tjanpi Weavers collective (Ngaanyatjarra Lands in Western Australia) brings together more than three hundred and fifty women in three Australian states. Since 1995, they have been creating spectacular contemporary art sculptures from locally collected fibers.
The Tjanpi Weavers collective is above all a story of community and family, of sharing stories and life, and it allows Anangu women to earn a regular income through an artistic practice that is both meaningful and culturally appropriate for them.
While gathering the herbs that are their primary material, the women take time to hunt, gather food, visit sacred sites and pass on their knowledge to the children.
Natures Mortes, Living Country
February 11 – May 28, 2022
From February 11 to May 28, 2022, the Deletaille Gallery presented an exhibition of Australian Aboriginal art featuring the work of the Tjanpi Desert Weavers and photographer Michael Cook. The exhibition was exploring the culture and history of Aboriginal Australia, as well as the richness and strength of its inventiveness through the work of contemporary artists who share a tension between extinct nature and living nature, between anxiety and hope, but also a belief in the resilience of this nature.
Punu Pukurlpa
Punu Pukurlpa (Happy Trees) is a collaborative sculptural installation created for the Natures Mortes, Living Country exhibition at the Deletaille Gallery by artists Dianne Ungukalpi Golding, Cynthia Burke, Yangyangkari Roma Butler, Nancy Nyanyana Jackson, Joyce James, Delilah Shepherd and Cecily Yates.
It is a celebration of the life and continuity of living Aboriginal culture. The installation is made up of organic, but also anthropomorphic forms: they dance in the landscape, not unlike the ceremonial dances of women, evoking ancestral Aboriginal Dreaming entities.
"Punu" also means "to protect" (Dianne Ungukalpi Golding). Punu provide shelter in the scorching heat of the Australian bush, they provide a playground for children. As guardians of the land, they stand in the vast red desert landscape as sentinels protecting the sacred land. Punu Pukurlpa is about resilience in the face of a time of profound upheaval.
