AUCTION | Aboriginal Works of Art | 4 June 2019

LOT #1 Inyika Donaldson & Estelle Hogan Minya Tjuta (Seven Sisters Dreaming at Tjintirikara), 2004 134 x 143 cm : Frame 137 x 146 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen $4,000 - 6,000 PROVENANCE Spinifex Arts Project, WA Cat No. (obscured) Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London, UK Private Collection, Tas EXHIBITION HISTORY Ilkurlka: The Art of the Spinifex People, 17 September – 22 October 2005, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London, UK When the Spinifex people returned to their homelands in the 1980s after their displacement during the Maralinga atomic tests, they found the southern part of their country had been converted into a nature reserve, the northern third leased to Aboriginal people from the north and the centre deemed vacant crown land. In order to document their land claim over country three times the size of Israel and twice the size of Tasmania, a suite of paintings were produced and used as evidence in the high court’s deliberations.

Their native title was recognised by the High Court of Australia in 1992, and the paintings were subsequently given to the Western Australian Museum in a symbolic exchange of art for land.

This work created by Estelle Hogan and Judith Donaldson depicts important sites that lie in their country through which runs the Seven Sisters Dreaming songline.