The Seven Sisters constellation has important meaning to the First Nations women of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands, telling the story of female power.
Several works in the Kungka Kunpu (Strong Women) exhibition are based on the Kungkarangkalpa, or Seven Sisters, stories from the desert region in the far north of South Australia.
Artist Nyunmiti Burton, who is one of the directors of the local Indigenous council, a leader of the local women's council and a founding director of the APY Art Centre Collective for Anangu people of the western desert languages, grew up at Pukatja (Ernabella) where the region's historic arts movement began.
In 1948 a women's craft centre was established in Pukatja, then the Ernabella sheep station. The women collected tufts of wool caught in the wire fences, spinning it and then making rugs. They moved on to learn other artisan skills, including famously travelling to Indonesia to study the art of batik resistance dyeing, a skill which they then passed down locally. Batik pieces from the region hang in the British Museum in London.
The Pukatja/Ernabella centre sparked the establishment of community arts and crafts centres across the region. All of the region's arts centres are now represented by the APY Arts Centre Collective which operates galleries in Sydney's Darlinghurst and in Melbourne, with a studio and gallery also in Adelaide, where women can meet to collaborate on works.
Burton was painting her 2.9-metre square work Kungkarangkalpa - Seven Sisters, which is showcased in Kungka Kunpu, when former prime minister Julia Gilliard visited her last year.
Gilliard, who is now chair of the Global Institution for Women's Leadership at King's College London, wrote an introductory message for the exhibition catalogue stating that Burton's painting was an "articulation of the role of women looking after women". The exhibition and the lives of the women artists placed them alongside "aspiring and successful leaders worldwide", Gillard wrote.
Newcastle's Lisa Slade, who is a long-time curator at the Art Gallery of South Australia and co-curator of Kungka Kunpu, says the touring exhibition is a powerful communication based on "an ancient call and response".
The Ken Family Collective have also depicted a story of sisters, with their collaborative work Kangkura-KangkuraKu Tjukurpa - A Sister's Story comprised of three 3-metre x 2-metre panels. The work by the Ken sisters, Yaritji Tingila Young, Maringka Tunkin, Sandra Ken, Freda Brady and Tjungkara Ken, and their mother Paniny Mick, references the Seven Sisters story as well as Tjala Tjukurpa (Honey Ant creation story).
They painted on a grounded canvas sometimes working simultaneously, and sometimes as a stream, with one sister's mark calling "for another's reply".
The catalogue asserts that partly through this collaborative spirit "Anangu women artists have helped to redefine the Australian landscape painting tradition, historically the province of white male artists".
Betty Chimney and Raylene Walatinna's painting Nganampa Ngura - ngunytju munu untalpa (Our Country - mother and daughter) was a finalist in last year's Wynne Prize.
Kaylene Whiskey's Seven Sisters work, Seven Sistas Sign, is less traditional than others. Painted on an old road sign it features strong women from pop culture such as Dolly Parton, Cat Woman, Tina Turner and Wonder Woman as the sisters.
The Kungka Kunpa exhibition was developed for the Art Gallery of South Australia's Tarnanthi program which works to bring major new works of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists to audiences across the country and internationally.
Language sharing is a significant aspect of Tarnanthi's ethos, with a glossary included in the Kungka Kunpu show, and an online video by Burton and fellow artist Sandra Pumani, explaining words related to their painting world - such as walka, Pitjantjatjara for the act of painting.
Running concurrently with Kungka Kunpu is an exhibition of blown glass vessels painted by artists from the most remote communities of the APY Lands, Tjukurpa (Stories) Ninuku Arts.
Also opening at the Maitland Regional Art Gallery in March is Mir Giz Kemerkemen Opged Lam Zenadh Kes (Stories from the Torres Strait Eastern Islands), an exhibition by Hunter-based Torres Strait Islander artist Toby Cedar relating traditional and contemporary mask and headdress culture.
Kunga Kunpu runs March 4 to May 21, Tjukurpa (Stories) Ninuku Arts runs March 4 to May 28 and Mir Giz Kemerkemen Opged Lam Zenadh Kes (Stories from the Torres Strait Eastern Islands) - Toby Cedar runs March 18 to May 28.
Kungka Kunpu language audio and video is available via agsa.sa.gov.au
