Janice Woods / Minyma Kutjara (Two Women) Dreaming (JW036)

Janice Woods is an exciting emerging artist from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in SA. She is the granddaughter of senior Pitjantjatjara Elder artist Maringka Baker and daughter of respected artist Elaine Woods.

Janice and her sisters, Julie, Venita and Cassey have been fortunate enough to learn both the art of painting and the important dreamtime stories of their country from their grandmother and mother and the family often paint together.

Janice lives in the remote community of Kanpi, located in South Australia, approx. 100km east of the tri state border between WA, NT and SA with her grandmother Maringka, husband and baby son.

The artist has painted Minyma Kutjara (Two women) Dreaming, passed down to her by her mother and her mother’s mother before her for millennia.

The older sister was travelling with her younger sister back to their homeland. The younger sister was hesitant to go further north as she had been living with another family near the sea to the south. She had been lost for a long time and didn’t know the country her older sister was showing her.

Her sister carried her and tried to comfort her. She was teaching her all about the country they travelled through. Sometimes they stopped to perform sacred singing and dancing. The further they went and the more singing and dancing they performed, the happier the little sister felt. They camped at Punuwara and Irrunytju rockhole before heading further north to Kaltukatjara (Docker River) and they were finally home.