Desmond Woodforde, Kalaya Dreaming - Emu Dreaming, 156-24MM, Mimili Maku
Synthetic polymer on linen, 92cm x 62cm
I have painted the story of the Kalaya (Emu) and where it gets its tucker out bush. The emu finds water holes (the black, white, and yellow dotted circles on the painting), and there it finds water to drink and bush tomatoes to eat. Bush tomatoes always grow around these waterholes. The emu leaves tracks in the sand near the waterhole. You can see the shape of its footprints in the sand around the waterhole.
Mimili is situated within the beautiful Everard Ranges on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in the northwest of South Australia, 488 kilometers southwest of Alice Springs. Mimili is home to 300 Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people who have been living in the area for millennia in harmony with nature and acting as custodians of the land and the Tjukurpa (creation stories). Mimili was formerly known as Everard Park, a cattle station that was returned to Aboriginal ownership through the 1981 AP Lands Act. The Mimili Community was incorporated as an Aboriginal Community in 1975.
