Madeline Curley b. 1976

Madeline Curley grew up in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, a vast region in the north-west of South Australia that encompasses several Indigenous communities. Madeline attended school in the remote community of Kaltjiti (formerly Fregon) and later Woodville High in Adelaide. Madeline is the daughter of renowned artist, Imitjala Curley; her sister Maria and Meredith Curley are also talented artists. Madeline is a self-taught artist and has developed a fluid and sweeping style of painting to illustrate aspects of the famous Seven Sisters Dreaming story, a huge and significant songline that intersects the entire continent.

Madeline paints a part of the story where the sisters are travelling across the expansive arid country, walking, trying to escape from the pursuing man, Nyiru. The roundels on the canvas represent the waterholes and rockholes where the sisters camped, and the overlay of finely dotted winding lines are the paths walked by the women and the ever-changing topography that they pass through, guiding and protecting each other.

Madeline is a widely exhibited artist, and in 2019 her artwork was projected onto the Sydney Opera House sails as part of the Badu Gili program.