Kwatja Etathaka / Living Water
Artists: Lindy Brodie, Selma Nunay Coultard, Dianne Inkamala, Dellina Inkamala, Delray Inkamala, Vanessa Inkamala
Partner: Iltja Ntjarra (Many Hands) Art Centre
Opening: Thursday 27 March at 6 pm
Exhibition: 22 March to 26 April 2025
Speakers: Curator Marisa Maher and artists Selma Coulthard and Vanessa Inkamala
Artists working at ltja Ntjarra (Many Hands) Art Centre summon their resonant landscape tradition to create decisive contemporary installations. In Kwatja Etathaka/Living Water dramatic watercolours on metal by senior artists Selma Coultard and Vanessa Inkamala call out to ‘Reclaim Our Water’. Alongside sit beside delicate botanical miniatures and etherial watercolours rendered and baked into glass.
The artists extend the Central Australian watercolour school begun by the brilliant Western Arrarnda (Aranda) artist Albert Namatjira (1902-1959) and his kin an art history known as the Hermansburg (Ntaria) tradition. The artists encode the Western landscape tradition with an overlaid ‘mapping’ of significant sites and living waters and their stories or songlines. First Nations peoples rely on ecological and ground water systems that make traditional food and medicine. But this is not an idyllic landscape.
In the contemporary world water is a contested resource. In the Northern Territory it is leased to extractors (irrigators and miners) for free and this is now being dramatically expanded – mainly by the designation of regional “water allocation plans” which vastly increase potential extraction from underground aquifers. Remote townships are united and determined to defend nature, water and Country as sources of life, not just resources to be exploited.
Kwatja Etathaka/Living Water sits in a sharp series of Caring for Country exhibitions named by the artists social commentary paintings that confront contemporary issues like homelessness and health and mining (fracking) and water contamination. Standouts in the series are installations for Sydney Biennial (2020 and 2022), a whimsical installation inside the neo-classical Institute of Economic Botany in Adelaide Botanical Gardens for Tarnanthi (curator Marissa Maher for Art Gallery of South Australia, 2023) and DesertMob in Mparntwe (2024, also curator Marissa Maher).
The artists say: “This body of work … is a reflection of the past and a window to the future. Intrusions and uniforms may change, but Tjina Nurna-ka, Pmarra Nurn-kanha, Itla Itla Nurn-kanha / Our family, our country, our legacy, does not.” (Tarnanthi, 2023).
The series is now joined by a new collaboration with Canberra Glassworks (begun in late 2024) to explore the elemental concepts of water and fire, a collaboration is ultimately destined for Tarnanthi Festival in South Australia in late 2025 but first seen in Kings Cross.
The water security campaigns by several remote NT communities have, in part, succeeded. Recently the Federal Government initiated a Better Bores for Communities program to improve water supply and quality in 7 communities and expanding water supply in 3 others. This includes installing essential equipment to connect new water sources in the Wugularr, Haasts Bluff and Ntaria (Hermannsburg) communities
As the Federal Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek, said in January 2025: “Every Australian should be able to drink water from the tap, no matter where they live, ... We’re working with state and territory partners and First Nations organisations and representatives to Close the Gap on water security.”
Hopefully the exploitative water allocation plans are abolished. Irreparable damage has already been done to Aranda country by the Mereenie Oil and Gas Field begun 4 decades ago, to the aquifer known as the Amadeus Basin.
First Peoples and others, along with stakeholders are seeking joint decision-making on planning and management to take full account of the social, cultural, spiritual and environmental impacts of water allocation across this world heritage catchment.
Selma Nunay Coulthard, RECLAIM OUR WATER, 2023. Watercolour on metal.
Diane Inkamala, Lerpa, 21 x 30cm, Cat. No 510-22
Diane Inkamala, Seeds, 17 x 27cm, Cat. No 538-22
Diane Inkamala, Seeds, 17 x 25cm, Cat. No 539-22
Vanessa Inkamala, Tjoritja (West MacDonnell Ranges), 20 x 30cm, Cat. No 107-24
Selma Nunay Coulthard, Urrampinyi (Tempe Downs), 20 x 30cm, Cat. No 108-24
Delina Inkamala, Jangal, 20 x 30cm, Cat. No 109-24
About Iltja Ntjarra
The Aboriginal-governed art centre Iltja Ntjarra (Many Hands) in Mparntwe/Alice Springs was established in 2003, to honour the heritage. The X school now embraces film, performance, public art, publishing (Albert Namatjira biography) and legal action notably over the Albert Namatjira copyright. The artists’ heartland Country is Ntaria (Hermannsburg a former Lutheran Mission) located a little over 100 kilometres to the west of Mparntwe/Alice Springs at a site along a southern branch of Tjoritja (the Western MacDonnell Ranges). This is known as Aranda Country.