maḻatja-maḻatja (those who come after)

Betty Kuntiwa Pumani’s paintings reveal a shimmering landscape of red earth, bright blue waterholes and stippled white tobacco flowers. They represent Antara, her mother’s Country in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in north-western South Australia, and Tjukurpa storylines centred on maku, the witchetty grub. Betty Kuntiwa Pumani – maḻatja-maḻatja (those who come after) is the artist’s inaugural museum survey, encompassing key loans from public and private collections, including works shown publicly for the first time. Maḻatja-maḻatja is a Pitjantjatjara term meaning ‘those who come after,’ carrying the understanding that all we do now already belongs to future generations – a thread connecting ancestral past to distant future through ongoing care for Country, culture, and story.