Kay Baker and Teresa Baker / Minyma Malilu (19920)

Kay Baker

Kay Baker is a senior Pitjantjatjara artist from the APY Lands of northern South Australia. Born around 1955, Kay spent her early years at Ernabella before her family moved to Fregon, where she worked in the community craft room. In the 1980s she moved to Kanpi, Country closely connected to her father, the late senior law man and renowned artist Jimmy Baker.

Kay comes from an important artistic family whose cultural knowledge and painting traditions have continued across generations. Her father, Jimmy Baker, became one of the most highly regarded senior artists of the APY Lands, while Kay’s daughter Teresa Baker and granddaughter Clarise Tunkin have continued the family’s strong artistic tradition.

Kay’s paintings are deeply connected to Tjukurpa and Country surrounding Kanpi. Among the important stories she is known for painting are Minyma Malilu and Kalaya Tjukurpa, the Emu creation story.

Her works often unfold as richly patterned landscapes, bringing together circles, pathways, tracks and densely worked areas of colour. Rather than presenting Country from a single viewpoint, her paintings bring many places, journeys and layers of knowledge together within one composition.

Kay is an important custodian of the Minyma Malilu story, a significant women’s Tjukurpa associated with Country near Kanpi. Through painting and the sharing of knowledge within her family, these stories continue to be carried forward from one generation to the next.

As a senior artist and cultural knowledge holder, Kay’s work forms an important part of a remarkable family painting tradition spanning several generations. Her paintings are held in major Australian public collections and have been included in significant exhibitions of Aboriginal art.

Selected Exhibitions

• 2011 – PRO COMMUNITY: Western APY Lands, touring exhibition, Germany
• 2010 – Desert Country, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
• 2009 – Anangu Backyard, Adelaide Festival Centre
• 2009 – Desert Mob, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs
• 2007 – Skin to Skin, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Canberra
• 2007 – Walytja, Marshall Arts, Adelaide
• 2007 – Desert Mob, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs
• 2006 – Desert Mob, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs

Selected Collections

• National Gallery of Australia
• Art Gallery of South Australia

Teresa Baker

Teresa Baker is a Pitjantjatjara artist born in Alice Springs in 1977. She spent much of her childhood at Kanpi in the APY Lands with her grandparents, the late senior law man and renowned artist Jimmy Baker and his wife, before later moving to Fregon to live with her mother, artist Kay Baker.

Growing up surrounded by strong family, culture and Country, Teresa was taught important stories and cultural knowledge by her elders. She later worked in education, including teaching Pitjantjatjara language and sharing knowledge with younger generations.

Teresa began painting in the mid-2000s, learning alongside members of her family and drawing on the strong cultural and artistic knowledge passed down through her mother and grandfather. While this family tradition remains an important foundation of her work, Teresa has developed a distinctive painting style of her own.

Her compositions are often bold, energetic and highly intuitive, using areas of intense colour, repeated marks, circles and open space to create a strong sense of movement across the canvas. Her works can appear both highly detailed and wonderfully spontaneous, with layers of colour and form coming together to express Country, journey and story.

At the heart of Teresa’s painting practice is the story of Minyma Malilu, an important ancestral woman whose Tjukurpa is connected to Country around Kanpi. For Teresa, painting is also a way of continuing the knowledge passed to her and carrying these stories forward for future generations.

Over the course of her career, Teresa has become a highly regarded contemporary Pitjantjatjara artist. Her work has been exhibited widely in Australia and internationally, and she has been selected as a finalist in several major Australian art prizes. Her powerful use of colour, form and movement gives her work a distinctive presence, while remaining deeply grounded in family, Country and Tjukurpa.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

• 2017 – Minyma Malilunya, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
• 2015 – Minyma Malilinya, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne

Selected Group Exhibitions

• 2023 – Wiru Tjukurpa: Beautiful Law Story, Short St Gallery, Broome
• 2019 – Resonance, Aboriginal Signature Gallery, Brussels
• 2017 – Territoire du Rêve, Fondation Pierre Arnaud, Switzerland
• 2017 – Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
• 2016 – Painting. More Painting, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
• 2007 – Desert Mob, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs

Selected Collections

• Artbank
• University of Queensland Art Museum
• Monash University Collection
• Levi and Kaplan Collection, Seattle, USA
• Thomas Vroom Collection, Netherlands

Selected Achievements

• 2017 – Finalist, Wynne Prize
• 2013 – Finalist, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards
• 2013 – Finalist, Kate Challis RAKA Award

Painted collaboratively by Pitjantjatjara artists Kay Baker and her daughter Teresa Baker, this artwork tells the story of Minyma Malilu, an important ancestral woman whose Tjukurpa is connected to Country around Kanpi in the APY Lands. Minyma is the Pitjantjatjara word for woman, while Malilu is the ancestral woman at the heart of this story.

The story of Minyma Malilu has been carried through generations of the Baker family and is an important part of the cultural knowledge shared by both Kay and Teresa. Her journey through Country, and the places and experiences connected with that journey, continue to inspire their paintings.

In this collaborative work, Country is brought to life through a rich tapestry of colour, circles, pathways, plant forms and repeated marks. Rather than presenting the landscape from a single viewpoint, the artists bring together many places, movements and layers of Country across the canvas. The connected forms create a sense of journey, while the changing areas of colour give the work an extraordinary feeling of life and abundance.

As mother and daughter, Kay and Teresa bring two generations of knowledge and painting experience together within the one artwork. Kay carries the Minyma Malilu story, while Teresa continues that knowledge into the next generation. Their collaboration is not only a painting of Tjukurpa and Country, but also a powerful expression of family, teaching and cultural knowledge being carried forward.