Better World Arts

Amari Tjalkuri was born in Ernabella around 1960 and went to primary school there. She continued her schooling in Adelaide at Gepps Cross High School. She has also graduated from the University of South Australia with a Diploma in Education and has taught at the Ernabella school and at Watarru community. Amari learnt creative arts from her mother who worked at Ernabella Art Centre. Amari’s father Bernard Tjalkuri is also a painter at Tjungu Palya where she learnt how to paint with him. Amari is now living in Adelaide.

Carol Young was born in Alice Springs in 1972 and grew up in Pipalyatjara in the remote Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in north-western South Australia. Carol’s mother’s country is Warburton in Western Australia, Pitjantjatara country not far from Pipalyatjara. Carol has painted at Ninuku Arts Centre and is a talented basket weaver.  As a traditional woman, Carol is a custodian of stories of her land and cosmology handed down through generations. Her strong culture has survived for generations in the harsh Australian desert through an intimate knowledge of the country. Carol is a mother of two boys and a girl.

Cedric was born in Adelaide in 1984, his family is Narangga, from Point Pearce on the mission on Yorke Peninsula in South Australia and Ngarrindjeri from the area along the southern parts of the river Murray the Coorong in southern coastal South Australia.

Damien and Nyinkalya Marks often paint together to create beautiful, vibrant collaborative works. Nyinkalya is a Pitjantjatjarawoman from Ernabella in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara Lands, South Australia. And is a talented batik artist as well as a painter.

Rama Kaltu-Kaltu Sampson was born c. 1936 in Mt. Davis, Pipalyatjara, in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands. He is an accomplished painter and traditional ngangkari-doctor and spiritual healer. Rama painted at Ernabella for three years before coming to Adelaide. His strong knowledge of tjukurpa (dreaming) has earned him much respect and his work has been exhibited extensively across Australia. As an Anangu elder, Rama has a great wealth of traditional knowledge and skills. Rama’s country is Kuntjanu, and he is a custodian of the Wanampi Tjukurpa – the Rainbow Serpent Dreaming.

Karen Kulyuru was born in 1969 and raised in Ernabella (Pukatja) on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara/ Yankunytjatjara Lands. Karen first learned to paint by watching her mother and comes from a family of batik silk artists. She started painting at Ernabella Arts and Crafts many years ago.

Nelly Patterson was born out in the bush in 1938. She grew up as a traditional Anangu girl near Pipalyatjara in the Anangu Pitjatjantjara/Yankunytjatjara Lands, with no whitefellas or roads. The first white men she saw were the camel workers passing through.

Imiyari Yilpi Adamson was born in Ngunaratjara, near Uluru in the Northern Territory. Her mother’s country is Pipalyatjara, and her father’s country is Yankunytjatjara. Imiyari and her family travelled to Ernabella (Pukatja) by camel when she was very young.

Nami Kulyuru is the eldest sister of a family of talented batik silk artists and painters. Nami has both Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara heritage. Born and raised in Ernabella (Pukatja) in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands, Nami first learned to paint by watching her mother in the Ernabella craft room. Nami is renowned for her batik silks, is a skilled weaver, and makes hand-painted necklaces she has facilitated mukata (hand-woven beanies) workshops in Canberra. Having grown up around the church (her father is a church minister), Nami is a talented musician and she sang in the choir for the Big Hart performance of Ngapartji-Ngapartji in 2008. On top of all of these creative skills, Nami is a qualified Primary School teacher and she is considered one of the key Pitjantjatjara teachers in Ernabella. Nami works at Better World Arts and Ngura Wiru Winkiku when she is in Adelaide and is a valuable member of the team contributing to public arts projects and many community activities.