Pukara, 2015, Tjaruwa Angelina Woods
Acrylic on linen, 60cm x 75cm
Provenance: Outstation Gallery, Darwin.
Tjaruwa Angelina Woods’s family was one of the last Aboriginal groups in the country living an entirely traditional life, and only made contact with contemporary Australia in 1986. She was born outside the Spinifex Determination Area at Warutjara, the place of Minyma Tjilkamata (the Echidna Woman), near the current community of Jamieson (Manta Maru) within the Ngaanyatjarra Lands. Her family was located when a group of Spinifex people were revisiting sacred sites in the area, sites that Woods captures in her work.
Tjaruwa Angelina Woods has captured the Dreaming story of the sacred men’s site, Pukara. In this tale of initiation, two ancestral beings, wanampi (a father) and water serpent (a son) are travelling to the site (1).