It’s been 20 years since the Aboriginal-owned Mimili Maku Arts opened on the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. For art centre manager Anna Wattler, Mimili Maku’s first exhibition with Ames Yavuz is an opportunity to celebrate not only this milestone and the works of founding members Tuppy Ngintja Goodwin, Betty Pumani and Robert Fielding, but ways of working that are integral to the centre and Aṉangu culture.
“This group setting is a beautiful nod to the traditional group displays that are the core of what art centres do: everyone working side by side on similar storylines, finding their own ways of doing that,” she explains.
For Fielding, who helped to initiate the exhibition, aptly titled Tjunguringanyi, Come Together, it was important that his mentors Pumani and Goodwin were involved. “These works are about holding onto the importance of Mimili. Holding onto the importance of all your teachers… of your matriarchs, minyma mayatja, of your forefathers, wati tjilpi,” he says.
The artists have curated the exhibition, drawing from works made over the last three years. Their selection includes large-scale paintings by Pumani and Goodwin depicting ancestral songlines and sacred sites, and screen-prints by Fielding, which draw on archival images and language.
“Robert’s work is less site-specific and speaks more to some of the core values of Aṉangu culture like ngapartji-ngapartji—reciprocity—and learning side by side,” explains Wattler. Fielding’s work also speaks to broader contexts, like the ongoing impacts of the Stolen Generations.
“His works pack a political punch but they’re also an extension to what Tuppy and Betty have been doing their entire lives, making incredibly powerful paintings which also carry this depth of knowledge. They might be misunderstood sometimes as just aesthetically beautiful… but they’re actually incredibly powerful celebrations of a thriving culture. Robert’s work sitting next to them drives that point home.”
Tjunguringanyi, Come Together
Ames Yavuz
3—24 May
This article was originally published in the May/June 2025 print edition of Art Guide Australia.
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