Angelina (Tjaruwa) Woods Australian, Pitjantjatjara, 1954-2019

Tjauruwa was born in the Great Victoria Desert at Warutjara, the place of Minyma Tjilkamata - the Echidna Woman, south of the current community of Jamieson (Mantamaru). Except for possession of a few pieces of iron, fashioned into implements and tin bowls Tjaruwa lived traditionally until the winter of 1986 when her family group of seven was located in northern Spinifex by a group of Spinifex people making a sortie into country to re-visit important Men's sites after some 25 years of absence. Tjaruwa came in with a small son on her hip and camped with her family firstly at Yakatunya, 90 kilometres south of Tjuntjuntjara, joined the moving camp which accompanied the construction of a road, 300 kilometres through the length of the Spinifex Lands, before settling permanently at Tjuntjuntjara in 1989. Tjaruwa was adjudged to be about 32 years old in 1986 and was given the birth date 1/7/1954. At this point in time (2019), Tjaruwa's family remains the last Aboriginal group in the country to make first contact with contemporary Australia.

It is difficult to even imagine the changes Tjaruwa was to encounter living in her new world. She had acquired an extended network of kin to establish relationships with, the daily activity of hunting and gathering was essentially replaced by the community store and water was abundant

 Tjaruwa's immediate priority was to care for her mother and uncle living in their new circumstances and it was not until her mother passed away that she took up an interest in painting. At first she tended to paint as she observed other women painting and then the accumulated experience of her other life and her mother's stories/designs poured out and Tjaruwa's unique Spinifex perspective was translated with spectacular style and technique on to canvas.

Tjaruwa was a leading Spinifex artist, who's works have featured in major awards and collections in Australia and abroad.

Tjaruwa passed away in 2019.