Teresa Baker / Minyma Malilu (19978)

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

In this painting, Pitjantjatjara artist Teresa Baker depicts the Tjukurpa of Minyma Malilu, an important ancestral woman 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 the story.

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

The women living nearby had been told not to visit Malilu. Concerned for the elderly woman, however, they secretly travelled to her cave, carrying water and food gathered from the surrounding Country. They continued to care for Malilu, visiting her and providing what she needed while she remained at the cave.

Teresa has used traditional iconography to portray the women and their connection to this story. The U-shaped symbols represent women seated on the ground, while the elongated forms beside them depict digging sticks and coolamons used to collect, carry and prepare bush foods. The circular forms create important gathering places within the composition, bringing together the women, their tools and the resources of Country.

The richly dotted surface suggests the vast landscape surrounding Kanpi, with layers of red, yellow and orange flowing across the painting and creating a strong sense of warmth, movement and connection between the different elements of the story.

Through this painting, Teresa brings together ancestral story, women’s cultural knowledge and the importance of compassion and responsibility within family and community. While the work shares the same Tjukurpa as her collaborative paintings with her mother Kay Baker, Teresa’s use of traditional symbols gives this artwork a distinctive visual language and a particular focus on the women who gathered food and carried it to Malilu.