Carolanne Ken / Minyma Malilu (19449)

Carolanne Ken, born in 1971, lives in Kaltjiti (formerly Fregon) in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. She attended school in Kaltjiti and completed high school in Adelaide in 1986. Carolanne began painting in 2004 at Kaltjiti Arts, where she had previously worked in the studio before fully committing to her art. She has one son, Clive, and a granddaughter. Her mother, Kunmanara Ken, was an artist at the Kaltjiti Art centre for many years.

Carolanne primarily paints the story of Malilu, a Pitjantjatjara ancestral creation figure, with evocative power, a story passed down from her maternal grandmother. It tells of Malilu, an ancestral woman who travelled the land searching for her daughter who had eloped with the ‘wrong man.’ Upon finding them, Malilu dug a cave with her piti (coolamon) to create a large wiltja (shelter). The roundels in Carolanne’s paintings represent Malilu’s cave and the paths she and other women walked to reach it. This story, tied to Carolanne’s grandmother’s country, holds profound spiritual and cultural importance for her. Carolanne’s technique involves mapping out her canvases with brushwork and refining the roundels and arcs with fine dotting.

Carolanne is a highly regarded and well-collected artist who has participated in numerous exhibitions. In 2019, her work was projected onto the Sydney Opera House as part of Badu Gili (meaning ‘water light’ in the language of the Gadigal people, the traditional owners of Bennelong Point).

Carolanne has painted the story of Minma Malilu, a deeply significant tale passed down from her maternal grandmother. Malilu, an ancestral woman, sought to reunite with her daughter who had eloped with the ‘wrong man’ according to Aboriginal kinship systems. Malilu found a raised piece of land to keep watch over her daughter and dug a cave for shelter. This cave is now believed to hold the power of Malilu spirit, which Carolanne captures in her paintings. The large roundels represent the cave, and the fluid brush strokes depict the digging marks made by Malilu. The Pitjantjatjara women are custodians of this story — they visit the cave, sing songs to Malilu, and love songs to their husbands to ensure their safety while travelling.