PROVENANCE
Spinifex Arts Project, WA
Art Leven [formerly Cooee Art], Gadigal (Sydney, NSW)
Tjaduwa was born in the Great Victoria Desert at the Ikkawitja rockhole in 1941. She grew up with her family traversing desert homelands, decades after most Spinifex people had been driven out by drought and nuclear testing at Maralinga. In 1986, she and her family became the last known Australian Aboriginals to abandon a nomadic life for that of a community settlement.
In this painting, Tjaduwa paints Pingkatja, an area within the group of places she was born and "walked around" as a young girl. Tjaduwa has an intimate knowledge of her country, it's stories, how places are connected through story, and how to survive in extremely harsh conditions.
