Ngayuku Ngura (My Country)
2016
ink on Hahnemühle paper
78 x 107 cm framed
Courtesy Iwantja Arts, Indulkana & Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
© The artist and Iwantja Arts
Ngayuku Ngura (My Country)
2016
ink on Hahnemühle paper
78 x 107 cm framed
Private Collection, Melbourne
© The artist and Iwantja Arts
Alec Baker
Born:c.1932 Saddle Well
Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytajtjara language groups
Art Centre: Iwantja Arts, Indulkana SA
Alec Baker was born at Saddle Well around 1932. He spent his childhood at Granite Downs, horse riding, bush camping and chasing bullocks. He later worked as stockman and travelled across the lands. He was one of the first artists at Iwantja Arts in Indulkana community.
Alec’s paintings and drawings map out the experienced story of his country. He draws on ancestral Tjukurpa (stories), personal memories, and a rich lifetime spent travelling across vast desert lands as a stockman and cultural law man. His detailed works reflect topographic map-like imagery, utilising traditional dotting techniques and a tactile palette to highlight and define forms and spaces within the landscape.
Alec explains what he is thinking about when he paints:
‘I was a stockman for a long time, we were all working really hard. I was riding in front mustering bullocks and breaking horses. We’ve been teaching people the stories we have and about our culture, and also knowledge from our stockmen days. Sometimes we think ‘who’s going to run this place when we go away?’ They need to learn the lessons about country, and be strong to look after this place. I’m thinking when I’m making my paintings, how to make a good painting, a strong one. Sometimes I’m thinking about the colours, sometimes I’m just thinking from my memory all the country I’ve been at, all the stories I have.’
In Pitjantjatjara language, the word Ngura is a definition for the physical geography of land and country. However Ngura has a more richly imbedded meaning as a place to which someone belongs; defining where an individual comes from, family connections, skin groups, and language.
