• MARNA MAPA MPAARAMA

     MAKING PLENY OF BUSHFOODS

     
  • This is the sixth year in a row that Hermannsburg Potters and Bett Gallery have collaborated, bringing pots from the...

     This is the sixth year in a row that Hermannsburg Potters and Bett Gallery have collaborated,  bringing pots from the desert to Tasmania to then share with collectors around the world.  The Hermannsburg Potters are a dedicated group of Western Arrarnta artists creating vibrant handmade ceramic pots that encompass collective and individually lived histories in their distinct Country.

     

    The Hermannsburg artists continue a 30-year legacy, sculpting and painting their visual histories and contemporary settings, speaking to their cultural beliefs, traditions and values. The vibrant and unique forms are made from terracotta clay working with the hand coil-pinch technique and finally painted with ceramic underglaze. The senior artists work with a style of painting reminiscent of Albert Namatjira, whose legacy continues to inspire the local community and its artists. This playful combination of mediums creates distinct work which had been widely exhibited and collected in Australia and overseas.

     
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    We already made birds for you, now we want to show for you our bush foods, because we been grow up on bush tuckers. 
     
    Learning from our ancestors, they teach us what to do for all the seasons.
    There's Tjaapa (Witchetty Grub) and Yalka (Bush Onion) in the karnta / Lhurrpa time (cold/ cold season).
    Some fruits grow up in the wumpia/ Eturna time (hot/ hot season). 
     
    We know how to teach our young ones because our old people taught us.  
     
     
     
  • ALIZHA COULTHARD PANANGKA

    ALIZHA COULTHARD PANANGKA

     

     

    Alizha is an exciting and dedicated emerging artist of Hermannsburg Potters, joining the group in 2020.  Daughter of Senior artist and community elder Anita Ratara, Alizha's family has a strong legacy in fine art. Her grandfather (her mothers uncle) is Otto Pareroultja from the renowned Hermannsburg School. Alizha's work 'Lyurra Nuka' (My Grandmother), depicting her Grandmother Rahel Ungwanaka, a founding member of Hermannsburg Potters, was acquired by Artbank in October 2023.

     

     Alizha is a natural potter with very fine painting skills and careful attention to detail. Alizha lives at her family outstation of 8 Mile west of Hermannsburg Community and draws her inspiration from the landscape, family and local flora and fauna.

     

  • All these bushtuckers I draw, when I was little, I grew up eating those bushtuckers. There’s so many things I...
    Alizha Coulthard Panangka
    Growing up eating Marna Mapa, 2024
    terracotta and underglazes
    33 x 29 cm
    AU$ 4,200.00
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    All these bushtuckers I draw, when I was little, I grew up eating those bushtuckers.

     

    There’s so many things I put in here, there’s langua (Bush bannanas), rraatninga (bush passionfruit), paraltja (sugarbag), mpaltjarta (bush orange), pmurlpa (quandong), kupaarta (bush plum). There’s also tjurrka that little yellow, red, orange bush fig that grows on the rocks.

     

    My mum taught me to eat these bush tuckers, then I taught my kids. They like eating all the bush tuckers as well.

     

     
  • My mum, my nanna, my aunty and my sisters, my cousin and nephews and niece, we went on the weekend...
    Alizha Coulthard Panangka
    Going hunting for tjaarpa (withchetty grubs), 2024
    terracotta and underglazes
    22 x 18 cm
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    My mum, my nanna, my aunty and my sisters, my cousin and nephews and niece, we went on the weekend for tjaarpa (withcetty grubs), near Ipalala Outstation. My aunty and my nanna showed us how to cook the tjaarpa and showed the little kuka mapa (young ones). We got lots of tjaarpa that day, we talk stories and laughed near the fire, we had lots of fun there. I still remember when we went bush hunting on that day.

     

     
  • ANDREA RONTJI PUNGKARTA

    ANDREA RONTJI PUNGKARTA

     

     

    Andrea Rontji joined the potters in 2017. Andrea comes from a big family of potters, is the niece of prominent po􏰀ers Lindy and Carol Rontji and the Grandaughter of Virginia Rontji and Irene Entata.

     

    Andrea draws her inspiration from the landscape, flora, fauna and community surrounding Ntaria (Hermannsburg). She has a fine attention to detail in her brushwork and is a skilled hand builder with clay.

     

     

    Andrea is central to life at the Pottery as she offers her skill as a Director and Art Worker. She has recently travelled overseas to present her work at the Indian Ceramics Triennale in 2024.

  • When the season comes for bush fruit we go out to Country to look for bush orange called mpaltjarta. We...
    Andrea Pungkarta Rontji
    Mpaltjarta (bush orange/bushfruit story, 2024
    terracotta and glazes
    36 x 18 cm
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    When the season comes for bush fruit we go out to Country to look for bush orange called mpaltjarta. We been taught by our Elders- grandfather, grandmother, aunty, uncle. We go out to look for a mpaltjarta. When we find, we collect from the tree, others been on the ground. We collect them all up with a bucket or a box and bring it all back to share with family. It’s good for your health.

     

     

     

  • This story is about going picnic to dig for Rumia (goanna). We hunt the rumia and bring it back to...
    Andrea Pungkarta Rontji
    Rumia (goanna)/bushmeat story, 2024
    terracotta and underglazes
    21 x 12 cm
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    This story is about going picnic to dig for Rumia (goanna). We hunt the rumia and bring it back to old people to cook. When it’s season for rumia, it’s time for old people to take the young ones and show them how to dig the rumia and how to hunt the rumia and how to cook the rumia.

     

     
  • ANITA RATARA MBITJANA

    ANITA RATARA MBITJANA

     

    Anita Ratara is a senior arist at Hermannsburg Potters and is highly regarded for her confident & colourful painting of Country.

     

    Anita was 'born bush' in the alukura (women's camp) near Hermannsburg in 1943. She is the mother of prominent potter Hayley Coulthard. Anitas youngest daughter Alizha is an emerging arist also exhibiting here. Anita attended the Hermannsburg Mission school, and later went on to work in the clinic, teaching the young mother's who had children. She also recalls making moccasins, or 'fancy work', for the missionaries. As a young woman, Anita showed natural ability in the arts and crafts, teaching herself to paint from an early age. She recalls being taught pottery by Naomi Sharp in the early 1990s, when the pottery program was located at the outstations. Now at eighty years of age, Anita continues to dedicate herself to art and comes to work at the Pottery every day, inspiring and teaching younger artists and family members.

     

    Anita work is held in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Australia 

  • This one is Paraltja, we eat them in the gum tree leaf. We get a big sheet or canvas or...
    Anita Ratara Mbitjana
    Paraltja (Bush Tucker - Lerp from Red River Gum), 2024
    terracotta and underglazes
    28 x 28 cm
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    This one is Paraltja, we eat them in the gum tree leaf. We get a big sheet or canvas or something put all the leaves down and then collect all the paralja that falls off. Put it in a plastic bag.

     

    When we was a school kid, our mum and aunty and grandmother used to fill up a lot, a lot, a lot of sweet one, yes. We used to eat them, night time, when you come back from school. Paraltja there at home. When we get bigger, old, we go. This place name, sugar creek he got a lot of this one, paraltja, in the gum tree there. Lot of birds are there. Must have always been like that.

     

    This two yellow and orange ones is bush tucker, we call them katjira (bush tomato), and this purple one that is kupaarta (bush plum). This one here grows on the mulga tree nice and sweet when they green. We call them ngaraaka (bush bean). We also got langua (bush banana), pmurlpa (quandong) and rraatninga (bush passionfruit).

     

    This brown one is under the ground, we call Latjia. Arrkarnka hangs in a big gum tree and is sweet like a coconut. Urrarlpa from up in the hills and those green leaves are inmurta (mustard greens), same like what Hayley (Anita’s daughter)’s pot is about.

     

     

  • CLAIRE PAREROULTJA

    CLAIRE PAREROULTJA

     

    Claire joined the Hermannsburg Potters in 2019. She was born in Hermannsburg / Ntaria and this is her mothers' country. Her Fathers' country is Pareroultja.

     

    Before joining the Hermannsburg Po􏰀ers, Claire had been pain􏰁ng for many years in art centers in Western Australia and also at Tjuwanpa in Ntaria. Transfering her creative skills to pottery has shown off Claire's talent for painting detailed imagery and her perceptive colour choices.

     

    Claire depicts her dreaming, honey ant dreaming, as well as bush tucker and local fauna. She is passionate about sharing stories about her Country and is a detailed knowledge holder for her community.

     

    Most recently, Claire's work was exhibited at the Indian Ceramics Trienale in 2024.

  • I got Antjatjinya (camel) here, kangaroo (arra), donkeys (ilpa- tinya). They just walking around, looking for kwatja (water). And I...
    Claire Pareroultja
    Urlpaatja (Port Lincoln Parrot), 2024
    terracotta and underglazes
    19 x 14 cm
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    I got Antjatjinya (camel) here, kangaroo (arra), donkeys (ilpa- tinya). They just walking around, looking for kwatja (water). And I got urrlpatjas, the green ones, I got ngapas (crow) they all looking for water, its dry time. They looking for tharrka (green grass). Parta mapa (lots of mountains), they on a desert thing, you know. Stay in the shade, looking for ntulya (shade).

     

     

     
  • These ones we call them thungarlpa (bush lolly) they on those trees that are white, with yellow flowers. And I...
    Claire Pareroultja
    Still looking for marna malpa, still eating it too, 2024
    terracotta and underglazes
    33 x 28 cm
    AU$ 4,200.00
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     These ones we call them thungarlpa (bush lolly) they on those trees that are white, with yellow flowers. And I got ilia (emu) arra (kangaroo), ramia (goanna), perentie, paraltja (lerp) on the gum tree here, langua (bush banana), lalitja (root), akia (berry), Urrarlpa from up in the hills, pmurpa (quandong), marna raatninga (bush passionfruit), Kupaarta (bush plum), mpaltjarta (bush orange), ngalta (bush cucumber), ngaraaka (bush bean), lupa (another bush bean from acacia that camels like too), katjara (bush tomato), and tjurrka (yellow, red, orange bush fig that grows on the rocks) and arrkarnka (like coconut).

     

    Bush tuckers that people eat, used to eat old people. And the kids. But we still eating it, bush tucker. We still looking for it, collecting it, me and my daughter, my niece, Roxanne, every weekend we take kids and look for bushtucker. And we grow up and my kids been grow up now. My grandkids on bushtucker. And we still looking for it.

     

     

  • hayley coulthard panangka
     

    hayley coulthard panangka

     

     Joining the Hermannsburg Potters in 2009, Hayley Coulthard developed her natural talent under the mentorship of senior Potters Judith Inkamala, Kwementyaye Ungwanaka and her mother Anita Ratara.  Now an established artist and strong leader of the Hermannsburg Potters, 

     

    Hayley Coulthard is known for producing work of both a high technical standard and of artistic merit. Hayley has participated in more than 50 group exhibitons in Australia and overseas Hayley's work is held in many public and private collections. Hayley has been a finalist in the prestigious Wynne prize at Art Gallery of New South Wales two years in a row, in both 2022 and 2023.

     

    Hayley Coulthard is also renowned for her delightul AFL footy pots, her work St Kilda versus Collingwood being acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia in 2011. She has since gone on to be a part of the significant 2016 National Gallery of Victoria exhibition Our Land is Alive - Hermannsburg Potters for Kids, where twenty AFL-themed pots were commissioned to tell the story of the game's history, particularly as it has unfolded in the footy fanatic community of Hermannsburg.

     

    Hayley is a dedicated Art Worker and Director at Hermannsburg Potters. She was the Chair of the Board from 2022-2023. Hayley also currently sits on the Desart Incorporated Board.

  • This one is my grandmother’s story. We all stay in Ntaria alturla (westside of Hermannsburg). On the weekend, my grandmother...
    Hayley Coulthard Panangka
    Marna inmurta (mustard grass), 2024
    terracotta and underglazes
    26 x 20 cm
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     This one is my grandmother’s story. We all stay in Ntaria alturla (westside of Hermannsburg). On the weekend, my grandmother and my mum, my aunty and my cousin and my sisters, we go for a walk down alturla urlpaiya (westside creek) to look for inmurta (mustard grass).

     

    My grandmother told all us girls “you go get firewood” and we put it on the nice red sand.

    Then my grandmother told us “go look for flat round rocks, maybe 5 or 8, flat one, little one, bring it to me.” And then she said “go get another grass, yaya.”

     

    When that sand is hot, after the fire, we move it with the gum tree stick and then we put all the flat rocks on the hot sand. Then we put that green grass, we call it yaya, on top of the rock. Then we tie it up, little string, that marna inmurta. My grandmother showed us to do that.

     

    Then we put the inmurta and put another grass, yaya, on top of the inmurta. Then we put that hot sand on the top and we make a little round one that sand, with that inmurta. Then my grandmother told us, “make foot prints, emu, on top of the red sand.” Then my grandmother say “we go for a swim and come back and see that emu print”

     

    We come back from swimming to see that marna, my grandmother is standing and all the grandchildren, my cousins, sisters are there.

    My grandmother says, “what do you see that emu footprint?”

    “It’s cracked” we all say.

    “Well then, its ready to eat that inmurta, just put little bit salt.”

     

    We love our grandmother, she show us all different bushtucker. We always sleep with grandmother.

     

  • judith Inkamala pungkarta

    judith Inkamala pungkarta

    Judith Inkamala is former Chair and senior member of Hermannsburg Potters Aboriginal Corporation, having joined the founding group of artists in 1993. Judith is an is an inspiring leader in her community of Ntaria (Hermannsburg), respected for her unwavering dedication and commitment to intergenerational sharing of cultural and ceramic knowledge. Judith is also a proud, former member of the renowned Hermannsburg Choir.


    Judith's first solo exhibition, Atha Yia Nukanha Ilama (I gotta tell my story / I'm telling my story), opened at the Art Gallery of South Australia in October 2023 as part of Tarnanthi. Judith was awarded the 2022 Australia Council Award for Visual Arts for her lifetime of achievement with Hermannsburg Potters and dedication to arts and cultural work in Ntaria.


    In her works, Judith depicts her lived histories and distinct Western Arrarnta Country. She sculpts and paints these visual histories and contemporary settings, speaking to her cultural beliefs, traditions and values. With 30 years' experience working with clay and underglazes, Judith's work is as skilfully painted as the pot is constructed.


    Like many Hermannsburg Potters and Western Arrarnta artists, Judith's painting style was informed by the watercolours of Albert Namatjira and the artists working in Ntaria at this time. "I remember the old people painting on paper. Painting the watercolours. I was best friends with Gillian Namatjira. After school I went to her house. Albert, her grandfather, was painting watercolours. The ladies painted too."


    Since 1993, Judith has been a part of over 100 group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Her work has been widely collected, held in public and private collections including Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Victoria and National Gallery of Australia. In 1996, Inkamala was invited to participate in a cultural and pottery exchange with the Sasak Potters of Lombok, Indonesia. She also travelled to China in 2010 to showcase her pottery to ceramic artists for the collaborative exhibition Meou Art: Exhibition of Australian Indigenous Art in Shanghai. Judith has been a finalist of the NATSIAA awards three times. Judith's achievements should also be measured in terms of the significant social and cultural contributions she has made to her community, her audiences and to Australian contemporary art.

  • We got a lot of bush tucker in Ntaria, Hermannsburg area. There was a lot of bushtucker in the bush...
    Judith Pungarta Inkamala
    Bushtucker/Marna Mapa, 2024
    terracotta and underglazes
    28 x 25 cm
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    We got a lot of bush tucker in Ntaria, Hermannsburg area. There was a lot of bushtucker in the bush everywhere. We got tjaarpa (withchetty grub) and yirrampa (honey ant) everywhere. In summer when rain come, all this fruit here, they grow up. In that fruit season they grow. In winter, kurnta time they get soft, come bad.

     

    We got langua (bush banana), and we got katjara (bush tomato) and pmurpa (quandong). We got Kupaarta (bush plum), Arrkarnka, erralunga (grevillia), ngaraaka (bush bean), akia (berry), lalitja (root), raatninga (bush passionfruit), mpaltjarta (bush orange). Got whole lot here.

     

  • A lot of bird, we call him thepa mapa. They eating a lot of bush foods too. They find the...
    Judith Pungarta Inkamala
    Thepa Mapa, Everywhere, 2024
    terracotta and underglazes
    26 x 16 cm
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    A lot of bird, we call him thepa mapa. They eating a lot of bush foods too. They find the sweet one and they eat them. Sometimes they grab fish. Anything, they eat em. I painted Elintja (Pink gallah), and kakalhalha (Mitchel cockatoo), erraarnta (red tailed black cockatoo), uurlpatja (green parrot), ngapa (crow), urlpura (magpie), lyritjina (budgie).

     

  • This one I painted Lyerrtjina (budgerigar), Elintja (Pink gallah), ngapa (crow), urlpura (magpie). Thepa mapa eating all the bush foods...
    Judith Pungarta Inkamala
    Thepa Mapa (big mob birds)/ Lyerrtjina (budgerigar), 2024
    terracotta and underglazes
    23 x 15 cm
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    This one I painted Lyerrtjina (budgerigar), Elintja (Pink gallah), ngapa (crow), urlpura (magpie). Thepa mapa eating all the bush foods too.

     

  • DAWN NGALA WHEELER

    DAWN NGALA WHEELER

    Dawn is a respected Senior artist, she is a precise and methodical potter, and her sytle has been noted for her considered figurative story telling. Dawn was born in 1953 in Hermannsburg. She is the daughter of Pastor Peter Buller, a Lutheran missionary of whom she has fond memories of, and recalls learning to make music sticks from him. Dawn married in 1970 and has two daughters, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. They live at their outstation near Ntaria - Rrirrkathathaka (Red Sand Hill).

     

    Dawn draws on the landscape around her, her love of her father's country, who's memory has inspired her to maintain links to her Luritja heritage through her art practice.

     

     

    Dawn's work is held in prominent public collections including at the Art Gallery of NSW and the National Gallery of Australia. Dawn was Hermannsburg Potter's feature artist at Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair 2023.

  • Going looking for rabbit and rabbit there. Cooking goanna and roo tail. Sitting down eating lunch.
    Dawn Ngala Wheeler
    Went for picnic, eating lunch, 2024
    terracotta and underglazes
    17 x 13 cm
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    Going looking for rabbit and rabbit there. Cooking goanna and roo tail. Sitting down eating lunch.

     

     

     

     

  • Went to Outstation to teach collecting tjarrpa (witchetty grub). And picking them bush tucker too, the kids.
    Dawn Ngala Wheeler
    Tjaapa (Witchety Grub), 2024
    terracotta and underglazes
    13 x 9 cm
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    Went to Outstation to teach collecting tjarrpa (witchetty grub). And picking them bush tucker too, the kids.

     

     

  • This one Mt Hermannsburg, and that one Mt. Sonder. Bush tucker, they grow up in sand. They grow and you...
    Dawn Ngala Wheeler
    I'll show you (between Mt Hermannsburg and Mt Sonder), 2024
    terracotta and underglazes
    21 x 16 cm
    AU$ 2,200.00
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    This one Mt Hermannsburg, and that one Mt. Sonder.  Bush tucker, they grow up in sand. They grow and you pull them up. I’ll show you. I’ll show you!

     

     

     

  • Picking bush tucker from tree and this one on top you see eating bush tucker. Bird flying. Pmurlpa, mpaltjarta and...
    Dawn Ngala Wheeler
    Eating marna mapa (bush tucker), 2024
    terracotta and underglazes
    20 x 13 cm
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    Picking bush tucker from tree and this one on top you see eating bush tucker. Bird flying.  Pmurlpa, mpaltjarta and arlparrantji everywhere.

     

     

     

  • From road, at sandhill, down the creek, kids always go and pick em up. Me and Karen’s little one.
    Dawn Ngala Wheeler
    Pmurlpa, mpaltjarta and arlparrantji, 2024
    terracotta and underglazes
    23 x 18 cm
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    From road, at sandhill, down the creek, kids always go and pick em up. Me and Karen’s little one.