Kalaya Kalaya

Born 1915, Pitjantjatjara, Pukatja, Southern Desert region

Dickie Minyintiri was born at Pilpirinyi in Western Australia and spent his childhood travelling across the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands, camping for many years in the foothills of the Musgrave Ranges near Ernabella, now known as Pukatja. He remembers the first non-Aboriginal person coming to Pukatja and the subsequent establishment of the mission in 1937. After years droving as a shearer and shepherd, Minyintiri is now one of the most important elders of the community and a renowned Ngangkari (healer).

Minyintiri began painting for Ernabella Arts in 2005, working at first on paper and more recently on canvas. 'Kalaya Kalaya' 2011 is one of his most complex works and highlights interdependency of Aboriginal ceremonial life and the natural world. The travels of emu are seen across the canvas as brilliant green footprints, interspersed within an elaborate map of country. The multiple layers of paint depicting the innumerable geographical, ceremonial and environmental aspects of the land are overlaid with a lace-like veil that defines these elements while also masking aspects of the information painted beneath. The conviction of Minyintiri's vivid palette and gestural brushwork offers a dynamic portrayal of his cultural inheritance and reveals the breadth and depth of his life's experience living in the Southern Desert region.