About the Artwork

Artist: Sunita Farmer

Size: 46cm x 137cm

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

Spiky mounds of spinifex cover sand dunes and plains throughout Uluru-Kata Tjuta. There are four different species in the park. Soft spinifex (Triodia pungens) and hard spinifex (Triodia basedowei) are the most common, but porcupine grass (Triodia irritans) and feathertop spinifex (Triodia schinzii) can be found among the domes at Kata Tjuta. Spinifex grass can grow to about two metres high and spread out to around three metres, providing a home for many small mammals and reptiles.

Culture

Anangu use spinifex to make a glue called kiti. They thresh the spinifex to extract the resin, which is heated until it fuses into a mouldable black tar. Kiti is used to make a range of tools.  When spinifex gets old and dense, Anangu burn it to open up the landscape and create foraging areas for animals.

Anangu continue to teach their young through the Tjukurpa and nowadays use their art to continue to keep the stories alive and strong. Walkatjara Art is the Aboriginal owned and governed art centre belonging to Mutitjulu community, located in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta national Park, NT.