Marpanytjanya
2008
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
100 x 97.5 cm
A.R. Ragless Bequest Fund 2009
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
© The artist and Ninuku Arts
Mrs Watson says about her paintings, 'I travelled around this country in the early days with my family. There's a lot of rockholes and we used to walk to all of them. We would stop and camp for a while collecting food and then move on to another place. The rockhole at Mt Aloysius had good water. I was born here.’
Kunmanara (Nyankulya Walayampari) Watson
Born: c.1938 Mt Aloysius WA
Died: 2012
Pitjantjatjara language group
Art Centre: Ninuku Arts, Kalka SA
Kunmanara (Nyankulya Walyampari) Watson was born at Mt Aloysius, at a rockhole not far from the tri-state border, sometime around 1938. As a teenager she lived at Anumarapiti, now an outstation of Irrunytju. She remembers shortly after this time white fellas came and told her family to go to Ernabella. She said, ‘It was good at the mission, there was lots of flour, tea and sugar. In the morning we would listen for the bell, then we would line up for food, go to church and then to work.’
Mrs Watson was a founding member of Irrunytju Arts. Until her death she lived between Kalka and Nyapari communities in South Australia and worked at Tjungu Palya and later Ninuku Arts
