Panel 1 & 3 from the series:
Ngayuku Untalpa-ku Ngura, Ngayuku Tjamu Kutjara-ku Ngunytju-ku. (My Great-Grandmother’s coutry. My 2 Grandfather’s mother’s Birthplace.)
2012 onwards
photography
dimensions variable
Courtesy Tjala Arts, Amata
© The artist and Tjala Arts
Ngura nyangatja ngayuku untalpa-ku ngura.
Ngayuku Tjamu kutjara-ku ngunytju-ku.
Ngura nyangangku nganananya
waltja tjuta ngurkantankupai.
Ngurkantara wala tjunkupai.
Nganana ngura-ngka wirkankunyanka.
Ngayuku walytja tjuta ngura
nyanga palula tjungu,
manta nyangatja munu
nganampakurunpa kutju-tu ngaranyi.
Tjinguru nganana ngura nyangangka,
nganana tjinguru kapi walytja-tjara
alatji-tu nyina-ku munu mai munu
kuka pulkatjara alatjitu nyinaku.
This country, is my great grandmother's country.
My 2 Grandfathers' mothers' country.
The wind has come because
country knows we are here.
My family is so connected to this country.
So every time we arrive
the country lets us know it has seen us.
If we were to stay here tonight
the water would come
and we would find lots of good food,
the country will always look after my family here.
Unrupa Rhonda Dick
Born: 1986 Alice Springs NT
Pitjantjatjara language group
Art Centre: Tjala Arts, Amata SA
Unrupa Rhonda Dick began working with Tjala Arts in 2012 as an artworker and found a passion for photography. That year she was awarded the inaugural Desart Photography Prize for a series of works about her great grandmother’s country at Apara, which included these two images. She has since taken an active role in training young women to work at Tjala Arts centre.
Rhonda is the granddaughter of artist Kunmanara (Dickie) Minyintiri and aside from her photography practice she sometimes paints with her grandmother Mary Pan.
