Anawari Mitchell

Anawari paints the ‘seven sister’s story’ a story rich with intergenerational learning and development. The older sisters teach the younger sisters. The stages of womenhood is nurtured with cycles connected to sacred women sites and their country. The men have their learning ceremony too and when they are ready, the men look for a partner, hiding in the grass watching the women, watching them hunt, watch them cook. The women know that Wati ‘man’ is watching but they musn’t look untill that wati makes himself known. In the dreaming these women ran from the wati and were chased into the sky to become stars. The remnants of the women are the claypans where the women sat, grinding their grass seeds for damper, and the wati now a rock still watches over the clay pans. The sisters travelled and camped in an area slightly east of Blackstone, Kuruyala. Anawari’s family, the women of the family, have custodianship over this very special dreaming place.

Anawari depicts the women, the land and the wati hiding in the spinifex grass painted with whites and cream, delicate textural punu ‘stick’ work.