TJAYANKA WOODS
Tjayanka Woods, a senior Pitjantjara artist, was born around 1935 near Kalaya Piti, an area close to Mimili and Wataru in South Australia. As a child, she lived a semi nomadic lifestyle, often camping near her birth place where her family would hunt ngintaka (goanna), tinka (lizards), kalaya (emu) and gather bush foods including ili (figs) and maku (wood grubs). Tjayanka also learnt to carve and decorate objects such as piti (bowls), wana (digging sticks) and learnt the art of weaving and sculpture which she still practices today. Many of her paintings refer to the Minyma Kutjara Tjukurpa (Two Sisters Dreaming), and the eagle which flies above the path of the two sisters over country near Irrunytju which she inherited from her father and her father’s father.
Exhibitions
2006 Tjukurpa Mulapa: True Story – Senior Irrunytju Artists, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
COLLECTIONS
Lam Collection, University of San Antonio, Texas USA
Publications
Ryan, Judith 2004 Colour Power: Aboriginal Art post 1984 (exh. cat.), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne