The Ken Sister – Tingila Yaritji Young, Maringka Tunkin, Sandra Ken, Freda Brady and Tjungkara Ken – are part of this desert art tradition, a distinct lineage formed initially by women, under the name of Minymaku Arts (meaning ‘belonging to women’), just twenty years ago in Amata in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands.
By working together – sometimes simultaneously painting together on a grounded canvas, and sometimes consecutively, where one sister’s mark calls for another’s reply (resembling an ancestral call and response) – the mnemonic or memory function of painting is performed. The sisters often return to familiar and familial subjects in their collaborations – to Tjala tjukurpa (Honey Ant dreaming) and to Kungkarangkalpa tjukurpa (Seven Sisters dreaming), two stories that are their birthright and their bond.
Winners of the Wynne Prize 2016 NSW ART Gallery