Wati Kalaya, 2009

synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen

134 x 140 cm

Est. $3,500 – $4,500

Hammer $5,000

Provenance: Spinifex Arts Project, SA Private Collection, NSW, acquired from the above
Artwork story: Wati Kalaya, Emu Man, painted in 2009, is the work of Alan Jamieson, one of the senior men who came together in 1997 to paint the men's collaborative canvas at Tjuntjuntjara, a small and extremely isolated community in Western Australia's Great Vic Desert. That painting, together with a women's collaborative canvas, was fundamental to the Spinifex people's successful native title claim in 2000, securing over 55,000 square kilometres of the Great Vic Desert for the Pila Nguru, who had been removed from their Country during the 1950s when Britain conducted a series of atomic weapons tests at Maralinga. The community's own account of what painting meant is direct: "Painting helped us get our land back." Writing in the 2015 Tarnanthi Catalogue, John Carty described the paintings as maps not only of land but of who Spinifex people understand themselves to be, in relation to Country and in relation to each other.

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Sale 3 · Lot 42

Alan Jameison

synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen

134 x 140 cm

Est. $3,500 – $4,500

Hammer $5,000

Provenance: Spinifex Arts Project, SA Private Collection, NSW, acquired from the above
Artwork story: Wati Kalaya, Emu Man, painted in 2009, is the work of Alan Jamieson, one of the senior men who came together in 1997 to paint the men's collaborative canvas at Tjuntjuntjara, a small and extremely isolated community in Western Australia's Great Vic Desert. That painting, together with a women's collaborative canvas, was fundamental to the Spinifex people's successful native title claim in 2000, securing over 55,000 square kilometres of the Great Vic Desert for the Pila Nguru, who had been removed from their Country during the 1950s when Britain conducted a series of atomic weapons tests at Maralinga. The community's own account of what painting meant is direct: "Painting helped us get our land back." Writing in the 2015 Tarnanthi Catalogue, John Carty described the paintings as maps not only of land but of who Spinifex people understand themselves to be, in relation to Country and in relation to each other.