Katheryn Queama

About Katheryn Queama

Kathryn Queama is minyma Anangu, a Pitjantjatjara woman from the Central Desert area of Australia. As well as working in the Docker River Store and for regional organisation, Nyangatjatjara Aboriginal Corporation, she has been learning carving from her mother in law, Nyinku Kulitja. Her traditional skills have been passed on through the Tjukurpa, the Law and way of life governing their country.

Paintings depict the Tjukurpa, the Law and stories of Ancestors. Anangu (Central and Western Desert Aboriginal people) have responsibilities for the protection and teaching of different Tjukurpa and there are strict protocols for the imparting of knowledge. The doting technique has evolved with the need to adapt sacred expressions of Tjukurpa for public viewing and as a depiction of the desert landscape.

Kathryn has painted Ngayuku Ngura (My Country). Kapi tjukurla are the water holes represented by circles. By their very nature waterholes also mark sites related to the Creation Ancestors’ journeys across the country; the ‘dreaming tracks’ followed by countless generations of Anangu since. They created landforms and customs to be passed on and maintained over subsequent generations. The sites are linked through inma or ceremony - the singing, dancing and body painting which reveals the laws of nature and provides a blue print for life and a guiding map of country. In paintings such as this one Anangu share, celebrate and pass on the Tjukurpa and the links it forms with their country and kin.