Yaritji Heffernan Kapi tjukula

Yaritji Heffernan was born to Pitjantjatjara parents at Mulga Park station near Pukatja/Ernabella in the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands of South Australia. Through her father, Heffernan has connections to Angkatja in the north-west of the APY Lands; through her mother, she has connections to Umutju, just over the Northern Territory border.

Heffernan was previously selected as a finalist in the Wynne Prize in 2021, also for a painting of kapi tjukula (water-filled rock holes). In this 2023 work, she has depicted the rock holes that can be found across the vast APY Lands, where water collects after heavy rains.

For Aṉangu, these rock holes are an important source of water during the dry season, when most waterholes and creeks dry up. Knowledge of rock hole sites is passed on from generation to generation and revered by all Pitjantjatjara people.