Description

Design Story:

Cynthia is a highly skilled punu maker. Punu is the Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara word for wood, and refers to the traditional artefacts carved from local hard timbers, usually mulga. The design is applied using hot wire to burn traditional stories and patterns into the surface of the wood. Cynthia is a master Punu maker and an outstanding artist. On the mug she has replicated the designs burnt onto punu.

About the artist:

Cynthia Burke is a Ngaanyatjarra artist, painting at the Warakurna art centre located near the Rawlinson Ranges on the NPY Lands in Western Australia.

‘We want to do the paintings so we can teach the younger ones the old stories – so they can learn. If we finish, it’s their turn to do dot paintings, to tell the Dreamtime stories – keep the stories strong. That’s why we do the dot paintings, so they can say “That’s my country, that’s my mother’s country.” Like that.’

Cynthia Burke says of her art practice – “Art is very important to me, I watched my mother all my life and I learnt how to make punu and painting. My mother also used to work for Warakurna Artists and art has played an important role in my life. I have worked really hard at taking what I learnt and developing my own style. I have been an artist for a long time, ever since I was watching and helping my mother, ever since I lived in Wingellina.”

Manufactured by Better World Arts (South Australia) – accredited by the Fair Trade Association of Australia

Royalties on sales are paid to the artists/their families.

Better World Arts ethos “By developing new and innovative projects, we can continue to distribute generous royalties to artists and support economic sustainability for communities in developing regions.”