Janice Woods b. 1988

Janice Woods was born in Kaltukatjara (Docker River), a remote community near the Western Australia border in the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunyjatjara (APY) Lands of Central Australia, and now lives in the community of Kanpi in South Australia. Janice comes from a very creative family – she is the granddaughter of acclaimed artist, Maringka Baker – and her mother, Elaine Woods, and sisters, Cassyane, Julie, and Venita Woods are all established artists.

Like many of her family members, Janice depicts the Minyma Kutjara (Two Women) story in her paintings, a “big story” that intersects many language groups in the Central and Western Desert regions. The songline details the journey of two women as they travel across Country, changing form into animals or elements to pass through certain areas. The movements of the two women create features of the landscape as they walked, rested, and performed ceremony.

The waterholes and sites where the women camped on their travels are depicted, as well as other topographic details of the country. There are variations to the Minyma Kutjara Dreaming story; Janice captures the textured topography of her own ancestral country in the APY Lands, in particular “Mulpu”, the Musgrave Ranges - the reds, oranges and yellows of the rocky outcrops, the undulations of sandhills and rockholes are depicted by Janice in this important story.