Kuntjil Cooper Pitjanttjatjara, Australian, c. 1920-2010

"I want to paint tjukurpa for my country. it is important for Irrunytju. Irrunytju is my country. When

I am gone my grandchildren will be able to understand their culture when they see my

paintings. I want whitefellas to respect anangu culture. When they see these important

paintings, they will know that tjukurpa is strong"

Kuntjil Cooper was born at Irrunytju rockhole around 1920. She remembered meeting

whitefellas for the first time as a teenager and hearing the bomb blast from Maralinga. “Maybe

thunder we thought. We didn't know about those bombs..and we smelt the smoke; funny

smell it made us sick. It was smoke from that bomb - that big noise. Some were dying."

Kuntjil's paintings usually depict "Minyma Kutjara Tjukurpa", one of the most important women’s

creation stories of the Western and Southern desert and a special story for Irrunytju. It tells the

story of the difficult journey of two sisters who travelled throughout these vast lands.