Alison Munti Riley

Alison Munti Riley is an acclaimed Pitjantjatjara artist.  Alison’s artworks have been exhibited widely and appear in numerous publications.  Alison has a bold and confident style of painting stemming from her authority and experience as an artist.

Alison’s mother is Betty Munti, who taught Alison to paint whilst working at Ernabella Arts in 1989 where her mother taught her the art of batik and screen printing fabric. Alison is a highly regarded artist. As a child she grew up at Pukatja (Ernabella) where she went to school before she moved to Amata with her family around 1990, she had two sons and two daughters. Alison won the People’s Choice Award in the 28th Telstra Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Art Award for her Seven Sisters painting.

Alison primarily paints the journeys of women crossing her homeland, mapping the features of the land and sacred sites. This painting depicts the Seven Sisters (Rock holes) story, detailing the rock holes in the sand dunes and Musgrave Ranges through which the Seven Sisters passed while trying to escape Wati Nyiru. Alison paints the part of this significant story that takes part on the ground, on her country, before the sisters turn themselves in to stars. There are many variations of this important story.