Megan Lyons
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About the Artist
In this painting, Megan Lyons depicts Wanampi Tjukurpa, an important ancestral story associated with Piltati, an important waterhole and rockhole site west of Amata in the APY Lands.
The story was passed to Megan through her grandfather, the late Tiger Palpatja, who was born at Piltati and became one of the senior custodians and great painters of this Tjukurpa.
The story tells of wati kutjara and minyma kutjara, two brothers and two sisters who lived together as married couples. Each day the women went out hunting while the men remained behind performing ceremony, singing and dancing. During these ceremonies the men could transform themselves into different animals.
Eventually the older brother suggested that they transform themselves into Wanampi, powerful ancestral water serpents. Rather than travelling into the sky, the brothers went beneath the ground, creating a great creek as they travelled towards the waterhole at Piltati, where they remained.
When the women returned they could not find their husbands. Thirsty, they followed the newly formed creek towards Piltati, digging into the earth in search of water. One of the women noticed what appeared to be the tracks of a snake and believed they might be able to catch it for food.
As the younger sister continued digging, her wana, or digging stick, struck one of the Wanampi. The serpents emerged and pursued the women. The sisters threw down their wana and piti, or wooden bowls, and ran, but the Wanampi eventually caught and swallowed them.
For Megan, however, Piltati is much more than the setting for an ancestral story. It is intimately connected with her own family history.
Megan has explained that her great-grandmother was travelling through Country when she went into labour. Her family took her to a cave at Piltati, where she gave birth to Megan's grandfather, Tiger Palpatja. Through his birth at this place, Piltati and its Tjukurpa became deeply connected with Megan's family and identity.
Today Megan continues the story painted so powerfully by her grandfather and by other members of her family. In her interpretation, sweeping bands of colour travel through the canvas between layered circular forms and densely worked fields of pattern. The composition has an extraordinary sense of movement, evoking the journeys of the Wanampi through and beneath Country and the enduring presence of the Piltati Tjukurpa.
Current local time at Gallery
Opening Hours
Saturday: 9:00AM - 12:00PM
Sunday: Closed
Call Us
1300 362 551 
+61 8 9168 1881
Current local time at Gallery
-
Mon - Fri: 9:00AM - 4:00PM
Opening Hours
Saturday: 9:00AM - 12:00PM
Sunday: Closed -
Call Us
1300 362 551
+61 8 9168 1881
10 Papuana St, Kununurra,
Western Australia, 6743 Australia
