Description
- Ink colors: metallic copper
- Base cloth color: petrol – deep green shot with black
- Composition: Princess dupion silk. A high quality machine loomed silk.
- Width: 137 cm (54 inches)
- Weight of base cloth: 85 gsm
- The artist is paid royalties for every metre printed
About the artist: Mitjili Napurrula (dec)
Design:
Mitjili painted her fathers Tjukurrpa, the ceremonial spear straightening in Uwalkari country (Gibson desert region). The Watiya Tjuta (acacia trees) are the trees that are used to make these spears. Uwalkari country is abundant with Watiya Tjuta, as well as sand hills and other plants.
This story was passed down to her by her mother; she remembers, “After I got married, my mother taught me my father’s Tjukurrpa in the sand, that’s what I’m painting on the canvas”. Mitjili and her brother Tjupurrula both inherited the right to paint works related to Ilyingaungau in the Gibson Desert. This site, south of Walungurru (Kintore), some 520kms west of Mparntwe (Alice Springs), is where the artist’s Mutikatjirri ancestors assembled their kulata (spears) for a conflict with the Tjukula men.
The artist is paid royalties for every metre printed.
Mitjili was a member of Ikuntji Artists, Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory, Australia. She passed away in 2021 and her family now receives royalties from the sales of her fabric.
Ikuntji Artists: the first art centre established by women in the Australian Aboriginal Western Desert Art Movement. Already in the 1980s women began painting in Haasts Bluff in the aged care facility. They had been instructed by their husbands and fathers, and they had often assisted them in completing their paintings. By the early 1990s these women artists decided to pursue setting up their own art centre. Ikuntji is an Aboriginal owned, non-profit Aboriginal Corporation.
Printed by:
Publisher Textiles & Papers in Sydney is one of Australia’s leading print houses. Focused on producing original patterns through traditional hand-screen printing methods they create bold and colourful textiles, hand printed wallpaper, clothing and fabric. www.publishertextiles.com.au
Fabric care instructions:
Dry clean if you want to retain the same handle/feel.
