Matjangka Norris
1956 - Kungkarangkalpa (Seven Sisters) 2022- acrylic on linen
Matjangka has depicted the infinite and breathtakingly beautiful night sky that is omnipresent above the country of the *APY lands. Detailed dotting creates an expansive field of stars. This is the Milky Way where the Kungkarangkalpa tjukurpa depicts the Seven Sisters when they have flown up into the Milky Way and can be seen as the star cluster known as the Pleiades or seven sisters. The story involves seven sisters who traveled from place to place to escape the man called Nyirru. He constantly changed his shape so they have to keep running away. He would like to marry the youngest sister but the other sisters do not like the idea of the sister marrying the man because he is ugly and has six toes. Eventually the sisters fly up into the Milky Way and can be seen as the star cluster known as the Pleiades (Seven Sisters).
Matjangka Norris is from Watinuma on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara/ Yankunytjatjara Lands, 350km South East of Uluru. Her main artform is painting. However, previously she excelled in the medium of batik. Examples can be found in the National Gallery of Victoria, South Australian Museum and Flinders University Collections.
Matjangka is an energetic, prolific and versatile artist. Her work features a range of subjects including the constellations, traditional country, bushfoods and mamu. Her versatility is evident in the range of styles she uses from her abstract seed paintings to those that show her creative and humorous personality and feature quirky imagery such as Mamu (spirit monsters). She is famous for dancing this inma which is humerous but also scares the children.
Until recently, Matjangka had a full time job is as a health worker at the Fregon clinic. Creating art is second nature to Matjangka and she has always been part of the Kaltjiti art centre with an artwork in progress. Her innate sense of creativity encompasses all mediums with the unique quality of a genuine artist.
Matjangka was born at Victory Downs Station, just on the Northern Territory border, north of Fregon. She moved to Ernabella with her family when she was a tjitji pulka (big girl) and went to the mission school. Matjangka and her family moved to Fregon where she finished her schooling. She has worked as a teacher at the Fregon school and in the Fregon store.
Source: Outstation Gallery 2022