Carlene West Pitjantjatjara language, circa 1944-2021

“These paintings represent my country of Tjitjiti, a large salt lake. It is the site of the creation story of Two Women. This story involves two women walking across the big salt-lake with a child when they are called by a stranger, a Quoll Man, to hand over the child. The two ladies make a run for it but the Quoll Man throws a spear and impales the two women together and then kills the child. This is a sad story. Those two women can still be seen today standing at Tjitjiti.”

Carlene was born in the Great Victoria Desert in the 1940s at a place called Tjitjiti. Carlene spent her childhood with her immediate family group and like many Spinifex people at the time, walked in from the desert to Cundeelee Mission to escape a long period of drought as well as British nuclear testing at Maralinga. At the age of around 12 as Carlene remembers it she embraced mission life to a large degree but always travelled back to country for ceremonial cycles.

In 1997 when the Spinifex Arts Project began Carlene was one of the first artists to embrace the project, already having been a prolific maker of decorated artifacts. She continues to paint on bush trips and has travelled to the many Spinifex exhibitions around Australia. —Text from ReDot Fine Art