Carolanne Ken b. 1971

Carolanne paints Minyma Malilu, a "big story" from her country in the APY which was passed down to her by her maternal grandmother. The story details the journey of an ancestral woman (minyma) named Malilu, who was trying to reunite with her daughters after they had run away with a man of the wrong 'skin' - a taboo relationship, according to the sophisticated kinship systems of Aboriginal people of the Central and Western desert regions. Malilu came to a rise in the land and when she spotted the couple, she began digging out a cave with her piti (coolamon) and digging stick, creating a wiltja (shelter) there so she could stay and keep watch over her daughters. Carolanne first maps out her canvases with painterly brushwork, and refines the forms of roundels and emanating arcs with a fine dotting technique. These swirling designs represent the sprawling underground tunnel systems of Malilu's cave, where her spirit is said to reside. Pitjantjatjara women still visit the cave site for ceremony and for spiritual healing; when wind blows through the tunnels of the cave, they say it is Malilu's spirit dancing.