Michelle Cooper / Walka Wiru (KFA24446)

Michelle Cooper is a Pitjantjatjara woman, born in 1971 in Kalka community, Pitjantjatjara Yankuntjatjara lands in South Australia. She moved to Alice Springs with her family after her mother died when Michelle was quite young. Michelle began painting under the guidance of her paternal grandmother, Kuntjil Cooper (1920-2010). Michelle learned the significant Women’s Dreaming stories from Pitjantjatjara culture including Two Sisters (Minyma Kutjara Tjukurpa) and Seven Sister Dreamings.

While Michelle’s mother was from Yuendumu and spoke Warlpiri, Michelle has her strongest cultural ties to Pitjantjatjara lands and often paints this country. Other subjects of her paintings lie in the Women’s Dreamings and associated ceremonies that underpin traditional knowledge from her Grandmother’s country. Michelle says that she ‘listened to her father’s story’ and absorbed Tjukurpa or traditional knowledge into her life. Michelle’s own daughter lives in Pipalyatjara nearby to Kalka on the APY Lands.

Michelle Cooper is a committed and focused artist who incorporates the Tjukurpa stories of her homelands into her finely worked paintings.

Walka Wiru means lovely country. This artwork by Michelle consists of intricate and layered dotwork that has been inspired by the sandy desert features of her country – Kalka Community which is nestled beside the Tomkinson Range, in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands (APY Lands) in the north west of South Australia.