Kumanara Barney

Since the mid 1970’s Pitjanjatjara Yankunytjatjara people have established decentralised communities close to available artesian water supplies, of which Indulkana, the home to Iwantja Arts, is one of them. Anangu people have special ties to totemic sites in the area and paint their connection to it. Artists use symbolism from their own individual Dreaming path, single and concentric circles, animal tracks and straight and curved lines. The dots in different colour blocks represent vegetation as it changes from place to place and season to season. Each painting represents not only the site, but the event that took place there in the Dreaming. Sites may be specific rocks, waterholes, special trees, mountains and many others. Not only geological features, but places where bush foods can be gathered. Wavy lines may depict travels of these ancestral beings. Contemporary art extends the boundaries of these traditions incorporating contemporary themes and bold colours.