Rictor, 59, took up painting in 2004, after he saw the impact his two elder brothers, Ian and Mick, were having on his people, known as the Pila Nguru, which means “from the space between the dunes”.
“I saw how much change it can bring to the Pila Nguru,” said Rictor, who spent five weeks on his winning work which depicts the dunes, rocks and waterholes he knows intimately from his childhood hunting there.
Noli Rictor on country in Tjuntjuntjara.Credit: Philip Gostelow
“There’s water and plenty of food there when you know where to look for it,” he said of the homeland he has reimagined on canvas.
A highlight of the 41st NATSIAA competition, according to Adam Worrall, the director of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, was the significant participation of female artists this year, with 42 of the 72 finalists works by women.
“With 72 finalists that’s 72 different language groups and different countries, with artists telling stories about their country and the damage to people and country from climate change and extreme weather events like fires and flood,” said exhibition curator Rebekah Raymond.
Pitjantjatjara artist Josina Pumani won the Emerging Artist Award with Maralinga, a clay pot that tells the story of what happened to her family after the British nuclear tests from 1957 until 1963.
Artist Josina Pumani pictured with her work Maralinga.Credit: Charlie Bliss
“My uncle went blind and many of my family died from radiation sickness after the tests and there was no clinic to go to once they got sick from the smoke,” Pumani said.
“My dad told me people coughed a lot and had open wounds,” the 40-year-old Adelaide-based artist said.
“Maralinga hurt our lands and people and our story needs to be told … we think about it all the time: Why did this happen to us?”
Pumani, whose mother, the late Ngupulya, and grandmother Kunmanara (Milatjari) Pumani were two of the founders of Mimili Maku Arts, started painting in 2009, but her 2024 entry was her first ceramic work.
Artist Natalie Davey won the Telstra Multimedia Award for River report.Credit: Charlie Bliss
Walmajarri and Bunuba artist Natalie Davey, won the Telstra Multimedia Award for River report, a 10-minute video which depicts the January 2023 floods at her Fitzroy Crossing home.
“I live about 50 metres from the banks of the Fitzroy River, and we have never had such a major flood event in 60,000 years, so I recorded it and drew maps of the affected areas,” she said.
“It was an emotional overload watching the water, which was magnificent and terrifying at the same time. I was in disbelief as I filmed and did so to double-check it was all real,” she said.
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“It is the first time multimedia has been recognised in these awards which is great because it shows the evolving world of the artistic storyteller.”
The NATSIAA show is at Darwin’s Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) until January 27, 2025.
Helen Pitt travelled to Darwin courtesy of Tourism NT.
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