Clarise Tunkin / Minyma Malilu (20021)

Born in 1993 in Alice Springs hospital, Clarise Tunkin is a Pitjantjatjara artist from a highly recognised family of artists. Her great-grandfather was Jimmy Baker (c.1915-2010) a foundation artist at Kanpi where his family were the traditional owners for the outstation and its lands. Clarise’s grandmother Kay Baker and mother Teresa Baker have continued the very strong artistic tradition of the family.

Clarise rose to prominence in 2015 when her painting Minma Marlimu was selected as a finalist in the Telstra Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award which is held each year at the Art Gallery and Museum of Northern Territory in Darwin.

Clarise remembers visiting Malilu’s Cave with Teresa Baker at age fifteen, learning from her mother about country and the sacred stories associated with it just as Teresa learnt from her mother.

Clarise now divides her time between her home in Kanpi and Alice Springs. Clarise is proud of her heritage and travels back home to take part in traditional women’s business there.

Like her mother and grandmother before her, Clarise's works are highly sort after and cements her reputation as a rising talent in the Indigenous art sector.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

• 2018 Clarise Tunkin Exhibition - A Magnificent APY Lands Artist, Mandel Aboriginal Art Gallery, Alphington, VIC

Selected Group Exhibitions

• 2023 Anangu Women Artists - My True Story, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
• 2023 Celebrating Country | Women Artists of Art Mob, Art Mob, Hobart
• 2023 Central Desert Showcase, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
• 2020 Anangu Artists - We carry story in our hearts, Japingka Gallery, Perth
• 2019 International Women's Day, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
• 2019 Women's Show, Yaama ganu, Moree, NSW
• 2019 Landscape Colours, Japingka Gallery, Perth
• 2018 Baker Family Exhibition, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
• 2017 PALYA: NYAPARI NOW, Short St Gallery, Broome WA
• 2016 Family Ties: The Next Generation, Outstation Gallery, Darwin
• 2016 Good Together, Short St Gallery, Broome, WA

Awards and Recognition

• 2023 National Capital Art Prize, Canberra - Finalist
• 2016 33rd NATSIAA, Darwin - Finalist - collaborative piece with Teresa Baker
• 2015 32nd NATSIAA, Darwin - Finalist

Collections

• Monash University Collection, Melbourne

In this painting, Pitjantjatjara artist Clarise Tunkin depicts the Tjukurpa of Minyma Malilu, an important ancestral woman whose story is connected to Country near Kanpi in the APY Lands. Minyma is the Pitjantjatjara word for woman, while Malilu is the ancestral woman at the centre of this story.

Malilu travelled from the west in pursuit of her daughter, who had gone away with a man she was not permitted to marry under traditional kinship law. Following them across Country, Malilu eventually reached an area near Kanpi. Unable to persuade her daughter to return, she dug deeply into the earth, creating a cave and a network of hidden tunnels and passages that became her home.

Although the local women had been told not to visit Malilu, they were concerned for her wellbeing and secretly travelled to the cave, carrying water and food gathered from the surrounding Country. They continued to care for her, making repeated journeys through the landscape to bring her what she needed.

Clarise was introduced to Malilu’s Cave and its story by her mother, Teresa Baker, when she was a teenager. This direct connection to place is an important part of her painting practice, just as the story had been passed to Teresa through earlier generations of their family.

In Clarise’s paintings, the story is expressed through an intricate network of concentric circles, pathways and sweeping bands that move across the canvas. These forms evoke the important sites, travelling routes and interconnected places of Country associated with Malilu’s journey. The repeated circles suggest significant places within the landscape, while the branching lines and pathways recall the tunnels, waterways and tracks that connect them.

Rather than depicting a single moment in the story, Clarise brings together many layers of Country within one composition. The result is a richly detailed view of a living landscape, where ancestral story, memory and place are inseparable.

Through Minyma Malilu, Clarise continues a story carried through generations of her family, while developing a distinctive visual language of her own. Her paintings honour both the cultural knowledge she has inherited and her enduring connection to Country.