Teresa Punami Mula Pimangka / Seven Sisters Tjukurpa (20004)

Teresa Punami Mula Pimangka is a senior Aṉangu artist and cultural woman from Mimili in the APY Lands of far north-west South Australia. Born in 1963, Teresa came into the world in a riverbed at Angas Downs in the Northern Territory.

Remarkably, Teresa is herself one of seven sisters. Each of the sisters was born at a different place along the ancient Seven Sisters Songline, creating a particularly deep personal and cultural connection between Teresa’s family and the Kunkarunkara Tjukurpa, or Seven Sisters Creation Story, that has become central to her painting practice.

Teresa’s father, Johnny Mula, was born near Watinuma and held the Tjala, or Honey Ant Tjukurpa. Her mother, Ida Mula, was born in the bush between Uluru and Docker River and held the Seven Sisters Tjukurpa. Ida passed this important story and cultural knowledge to her daughters, and Teresa has continued that intergenerational tradition by teaching the story to her own daughters.

Teresa is married to Ken Pumani, the son of renowned senior artist Kunmanara Milatjari Pumani. Together they have five children, Anita, Brenita, Errol, Roxanne and Danielle. Teresa’s daughters have also become artists, and over the years she has painted collaborative works with them, particularly works depicting the Seven Sisters Tjukurpa.

For Teresa, painting the Seven Sisters is not simply about recounting an ancestral journey. The story also speaks strongly of family, responsibility and women caring for one another. Teresa describes it as a story about older sisters looking after the younger women, teaching them and helping them through danger. This idea of women working together mirrors Teresa’s own life as one of seven sisters, a mother of four daughters and an important senior woman within her community.

Teresa has exhibited widely since at least 2016, with her work appearing in exhibitions in Broome, Sydney, Alice Springs, Melbourne and South Australia. Her paintings are distinguished by densely layered fields of dotting, strong flowing forms and interconnected pathways, through which she maps the movement of ancestral women across Country.

Selected Exhibitions

• 2024 – Women’s Story, Short St Gallery, Broome
• 2020 – Tjintungka, Short St Gallery, Broome
• 2019 – Winter Salon + Art Parade, Everywhen Artspace, Flinders
• 2019 – Bold & Beautiful, Talapi Gallery, Alice Springs
• 2019 – Tjungula Warkarima Nganampa Tjitji Tjutaku, APY Gallery, Sydney
• 2018 – Malatja Tjutangku Ara Irititja Kunpungku, APY Gallery, Sydney
• 2018 – Tjungungku Palyantja: Together All Is Well, Short St Gallery, Broome
• 2017 – Tjukurpa Stories, Hahndorf Academy, Tarnanthi Festival, South Australia
• 2017 – Minyma Tjutaku Tjukurpa, Short St Gallery, Broome
• 2017 – Our Rising Stars 2, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, Gymea, NSW
• 2016 – Our Rising Stars, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, Gymea, NSW

In this painting, Teresa Punami Mula Pimangka depicts the Kunkarunkara Tjukurpa, the Seven Sisters Creation Story, one of the great ancestral narratives that travels across vast areas of Australia.

The Seven Sisters are ancestral women whose story is associated with the Pleiades star cluster. They are pursued by a powerful man known as Nyiru or Nyirunya, associated with the constellation Orion. Nyiru desires one of the sisters and relentlessly follows the women as they travel across Country.

The sisters repeatedly move between earth and sky in an effort to escape him. Nyiru uses magic and trickery to tempt them, at times transforming himself into desirable bush foods or places where the exhausted women might stop and rest. The sisters recognise his tricks and continue their journey, often travelling through the night rather than allowing themselves to be caught.

At one stage the youngest sister falls victim to Nyiru, but the eldest sister comes to her aid and helps her escape. Ultimately the women rise into the night sky, where they become the group of stars known as the Pleiades, while Nyiru continues his eternal pursuit as Orion.

For Teresa, however, the Seven Sisters story carries an especially personal meaning. She is herself one of seven sisters, each born at a different place along the Seven Sisters Songline, and the Tjukurpa was passed to her by her mother, Ida Mula. Teresa has since passed this cultural knowledge to her own daughters.

She has spoken of the story as being about family looking after one another, with the older sisters protecting, teaching and helping the younger women. This theme of female strength and shared responsibility is reflected in Teresa’s own family, where generations of women have painted and maintained the story together.

Within Teresa’s paintings, elongated and looping forms represent the travelling Seven Sisters, while circular forms mark rockholes and important places across the landscape. In this work, the sisters seem to move continuously through a densely patterned Country of waterholes, pathways and ancestral sites. Sweeping bands of finely dotted lines create a powerful sense of movement, suggesting both the sisters’ long journey across the land and the continuing life of the Tjukurpa through successive generations.