Piltati Tjukurpa | 90h x 150w | RK918
Not stretched or framed | Acrylic on canvas
Rhoda Tjitayi (b.1969) in Pukatja (formerly Ernabella) on APY Lands in South Australia. Her grandfather was from Nyapari and her grandmother from Makiri, Tjala Minyma Ngura, a scared women’s place relating to the Honey ant. Rhoda is now based in Adelaide and paints mainly at the APY Studio Adelaide in 2019.
Rhoda’s works mostly depict Piltati Tjukurpa, an important cultural story learnt from her grandmother. The story Piltati Tjukurpa is about two sisters, Wanyinta and Alartjatjarra, along with their husbands, who travelled the lands looking for food. The two women would travel far to dig and hunt and always returned with food for their husbands, but on one particular occasion decided they would eat some of the food before heading back to their husbands. Their husbands became angry that their wives had not returned and decided to trick their wives by turning into two water snakes and going into the water holes near the site. The men, in the form of water snakes became angry and swallowed the two sisters. Rhoda remembers visiting her grandmother and sitting with her while she painted. When Rhoda paints she says “I am remembering the story she passed on. I am painting this to pass it on to my children. I have learnt this story from my grandmother she put the story in my heart and it’s going out to my grandchildren. When she was painting, she would tell a story and sing.” Rhoda learnt how to dance and sing from her grandmother and is now teaching her daughter and her family. Rhoda says “I am happy to be painting my grandmother’s story.”
Rhoda has been included in numerous exhibitions and most recently has been featured in the 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Free/State at the Art Gallery of South Australia and 2022 Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
