WINYA is supported by a number of renowned Indigenous Artists, who can work with your Interior Design firm on design and colour to produce large format Corporate paintings and murals, and then translate these into unique fabrics, bespoke lounges and ottomans, tables and timber goods, to achieve the design you require for both individual fit outs and also larger scale branding that reinforces your Company’s Indigenous engagement.

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 University of South Australia with a Diploma of 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 Yankunyjatjara 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 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 country. Carol is mother to two boys and a girl.

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. When Nelly was a little older, the missionaries came. She remembers coming into Ernabella and seeing people wearing clothes, and she was scared. Nelly moved to Areonga, near Hermannsburg in the Northern Territory, and lived there for a long time, nearly eighteen years. She did pottery there. She then lived in Jay Creek, where her grandfather is from. She travelled all over the country, and had come back and forth to Adelaide to bring up her grandchildren. She now lives in Adelaide permanently. As a senior traditional woman, Nellie is custodian of the stories and lore which has sustained her people throughout generations.

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 custodian of the Wanampi Tjukurpa – the Rainbow Serpent Dreaming.

Phyllis Edwards was born in Alice Springs and lived in Ernabella as a child. Her parents were both Pitjantjatjara, her mother from Ernabella and her father from Mimili. Phyllis has lived in Adelaide since she was a teenager but still travels back to the APY Lands regularly. In Ernabella, Phyllis learned to paint batik silk and also painting on canvas. Her cousin sister, Nyukana Daisy Baker, was a talented painter and ceramicist from Ernabella and Phyllis learned many of her creative skills from being around Daisy. Phyllis has painted for several years and has worked in translating and also at Wiltja, the Pitjantjatjara hostel for teenagers studying at Woodville High School.

Wanatjura Lewis was born in 1952 in Ernabella Pukatja in the remote Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunyjatjara Lands in north western South Australia. Her mother’s country is Kunamata and her father’s country is Pipalyatjara. Wanatjura has 5 children and 8 grandchildren. She moved to Amata with her family and finished school in year eight. She worked at Amata Anangu School as an Aboriginal Education Worker and School Coordinator. Wanatjura first learnt batik art practice at Ernabella and then started painting. Her work has been exhibited multiple times at Better World Arts.

Willie Ngungutjara Wilson (1950-2008) lived a traditional life with his parents and six siblings near Pipalyatjara (his father’s country) in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara/ Yankunytjatjara Lands. His mother’s country was Areyonga/Umutu. Willie’s tjukurpa (dreaming) was malu (kangaroo). Willie passed away in November 2008 and is sadly missed at Better World Arts. His family has asked that his photo and name keep being used as they want people to remember him. Willie’s work has left a strong legacy to his family and his paintings continue to produce an income for his wife and five children via Better World Arts’ Cross Cultural Projects.

Yaritji Heffernan is a ‘bush baby,’ born in Mulga Park station near Ernabella. She has fond memories of growing up at the Ernabella misison school, where she lived as a child with many of the women now painting in Adelaide. Her parents were both Pitjantjatjara, her father was from Angkatja and her mother was from Umutju. Yaritji married an Arrente man near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory and can speak a little Arrente and Amatyerre as well as Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjara. Yarijti is a skilled artist who first learned to paint ‘walka wiru’ design-based works in the Ernabella craft room in the seventies. As well as painting, she made batik silks, tapestries, hooked floor rugs, oil paintings and ceramics. She remembers winning 1st and 2nd prize at the Alice Springs show for her artworks as a young woman. More recently through the NPY Women’s Council, Yaritji learned to weave tjanpi (baskets), mukata (beanies) and hand paint seed necklaces. She has facilitated arts workshops in Darwin and Adelaide.

Mim Cole, a Larrakia, Wardaman and Karajarri woman, is a visual artist from Darwin, Northern Territory. Mim has been creating art since a young teen, learning techniques through practice and observation of the art-making of her mother, uncles and large artistic family. Mim is a natural artist who experiments with and applies her traditional and abstract compositions to a variety of media including painting, printmaking and a wide range of design work. Her sense of composition is particularly inspired by the rawness of ancient Aboriginal art. Mim’s creative practice, licensed under the name of Mimmim, holds a strong connection to identity, family, country, nature and community which she channels intuitively into her art. Mim enjoys pushing the boundaries of her arts practice using a mix of vibrant colours with a traditional palette to express dynamic movement in each painting and design.

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