Hayley Panangka Coulthard Rama-rama nukanha yia (My great-great-grandmother’s story)

Hayley Panangka Coulthard is among a group of Western Aranda artists known as the Hermannsburg Potters, who are influenced by the painting style of Albert Namatjira (1902–59). Namatjira was a pioneer of the Hermannsburg school of watercolourists at Ntaria/Hermannsburg.

This terracotta pot with a figurative lid tells the story of Coulthard’s Pitjantjatjara rama-rama (great-great-grandmother) Florrie. The painted landscape on the pot depicts Mutitjulu, the remote Aboriginal community where Florrie was born. At 18, Florrie ran away from Mutitjulu, because she did not want to marry. Florrie walked a long way, settling in Ntaria, where she eventually married a Western Aranda man. For the lid, Coulthard has sculpted Florrie holding her coolamon, which she used to collect bush foods to eat on her journey.

A two-time Wynne finalist, Coulthard says she did not initially make this work for exhibition, ‘but when I finished [it], I wanted to find a way to share Florrie’s story for all the Hermannsburg family, so I entered it in the Wynne Prize’.

The Hermannsburg Potters created 12 new works for the Yiribana Gallery in the Art Gallery’s North Building. Coulthard says, ‘This pot, Florrie’s story, can sit in the Art Gallery with all the other artworks from our family.’