Patju Presley Stanley Australian, Pitjantjatjara, b. 1945
Patju Presley Stanley Australian, Pitjantjatjara, b. 1945
Iltun, 2025
acrylic on linen
110 x 85 cm
25-51
Patju Presley paints with a passion for country as he evokes his 'early days' nomadic wanderings with his immediate family throughout the vast country he calls home. He is a...
Patju Presley paints with a passion for country as he evokes his 'early days' nomadic wanderings with his immediate family throughout the vast country he calls home. He is a master story teller of the Tjukurpa - creation events that shaped the environment we see today and is knowledgeable on many inma (traditional dancing and singing) for site specific ceremony. Here Patju depicts the significant site of Mituna that forms part of the Wati Kutjara Tjukurpa (Two Men Creation Line). This is an epic singling that follows the trials of a father and son Wanampi (Water Serpent) who are traversing the Spinifex Lands on Law ceremony. It is near Mituna that the father wakes one night to see his son missing and so begins to follow his tracks in the darkness. He is led to where the Wati Punpunpa (Fly Men) have congregated. The son is embroiled in a fight with the other men and the father witnesses him being speared but manages to drag him away. The son eventually perishes from his wounds. These are creation beings who shaped the landscape as they moved through it . Powerful beings who left indelible reminders of their presence everywhere within the terrain.