'Martuwarra' by Sonia Kurarra, 100% Silk Satin Twilly - Represented by One of Twelve (m/oft008)

100% silk satin twilly, featuring work by Mangkaja artist Sonia Kurarra.

MATERIALS: 100% Silk Satin, double sided printing with hand rolled edges.

DIMENSIONS: 12 x 180 cm

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Mangkaja Arts is a thriving, Aboriginal-owned and governed art centre based in the township of Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Established in 1981, the art centre evolved from modest beginnings as an arm of Karrayili Adult Education Centre, a community initiative set up for local people who wanted to learn English. The art centre takes its name from the Walmajarri word ‘mangkaja’ – a  wet weather shelter traditionally made from spinifex erected by the Walmajarri people of the Great Sandy Desert prior to settler contact. Today, Mangkaja Arts embodies that term, providing a haven for artists to meet, talk and paint both important esoteric and personal stories.

Ms Kurarra was born in 1952, and grew up on the river at Yungngora, on Noonkanbah Country. Passionate about art from an early age, she remembered helping the kindergarten teacher teach art – taking the children out to the Sandy Billabong to teach them how to paint, and dance, and passing on ngarrangkarni (Dreaming stories). Ms Kurarra began painting at Mangkaja Arts in the early 1990s and has exhibited in numerous group shows since. Her first solo show in Sydney (2009) received critical acclaim, and she established herself as one of Mangkaja’s leading artists, before her death in 2025.

This item is available in Store at Midland Junction Arts Centre.

Images and text courtesy of One of Twelve.