Mantuwa George b. 1962

Mantuwa George was born at Shirley Well, 60km south of Kaltjiti (formerly Fregon), a remote community located on the expansive Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in Central Australia. Mantuwa’s parents worked on the cattle station that was once part of the Ernabella Mission. Mantuwa is the sister of acclaimed artist, Pollyanne Smith. Mantuwa first began painting in 1996, and over the course of her career has become a key member and contributor to the Kaltjiti Arts committee as well as the broader Kaltjiti community.

Mantuwa’s painting style is informed by her upbringing steeped in Pitjantjatjara cultural practice and tradition, as well as her deep knowledge of her ancestral country. She depicts the country in the wake of waru, fire, and kapi, rain. Complex and informed cultural burning has been practised by Aboriginal people for tens of thousands of years as a means of environmental management, promoting new growth of plant life and replenishing wildlife habitat, and preventing larger and more destructive fires. Mantuwa's paintings acknowledge the power of the elements, such as the healing process of rain coming over, flowing kapi (water) back in to the burned country, and filling the kapitjukula (waterholes), depicted by roundels. Around the waterholes, Mantuwa represents the budding new growth emerging from the burned country, such as gum saplings and medicinal emu bush.

Mantuwa also paints a Waru Pulka fire story, as well as Mamungarinyi, a Tjukurpa (Dreaming) story from her mother’s country, south of Watarru, detailing how women were turned into the white marble gums that can be found in the sand dunes there.