Emu Walk Apartments

Rene grew up in the northern territory range country of South Australia, attending school there before marrying and moving to her husband's country of Docker River (NT). now based in Mutijulu, she is a committed artist and active community member. As a founding member of Walkatjara Art, her dramatic representation of Uluru flies on a Qantas jet. At various times Rene has been a member of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta Board of Joint Management, a director of Ngaayatjara, Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara Women's Council, and Chair of Maruku Arts. 

Paintings depict Tjukurpa, the Law and stories of the Ancestors. Anangu (Central and Western Desert people)  have responsibilities for the protection and teaching of different Tjukurpa and there are strict protocols for the imparting of knowledge. The dotting technique has evolved with the need to adapt sacred expressions of Tjukurpa for public viewing and as a depiction of the desert landscape. 

Kungkarangkalpa is the Tjukurpa of the Seven Sisters, concerning a group of women being pursued by a cunning man called Nyiru who attempts to lure them into marriage with him. They travelled through a vast amount of Australia and this painting represents different stages in that journey. This painting of Rene's shows the sisters as black circles and Wati Nyiru as a set of concentric circles.  

In Kungkarankalpa's escape from Nyiru they stopped to camp, build shelters and hunt for food, thus forming many features of the landscape and embedding the knowledge and survival in it. Eventually they fled into the sky where they became the constellation known as Pleaides or Seven Sisters. Nyiru follows them ceaselessly across the night sky as one of the bright stars in the constellation known as Orion.  

© Rene Kulitja, Kungkarangkalpa, 2012