Ngayuku Ngura - My Country
2016
acrylic on linen
198 x 240 cm
Courtesy the artist and Tjala Arts
In this painting Barbara has depicted her country. The different colours and designs represent variations in the landscape. 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, language.
Paintings of Ngura often portray personal stories and memories of Country that are personal to the artist. Iconography of significant elements within the desert landscape such as rock holes, underground springs, mountain and rock formations, and sacred sites are meticulously recorded from memory, and often depicted from an aerial perspective.
Barbara Mbitjana Moore
Born: 1964 Ti Tree NT
Anmatyerre language group
Art Centre: Tjala Arts, Amata SA
Barbara Moore was born in 1964. She grew up in Ti Tree and moved to Amata to live with her husband. Barbara is an Aboriginal senior health worker for Nganampa Heath. She works in a full time position at Amata Clinic and also commits to her painting practice working at the Tjala Arts centre on a daily basis. Barbara first began to paint at Tjala Arts in April 2003 and has since become well known for her bold, graphic canvases.
Her command of large scale works saw her receive the prestigious General Painting Award at the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2012.
