Rosemary Porter Purungu

From a tiny remote community, Tjukurla over the WA border in the Docker River region, 790k west of Alice Springs, Rosemary was born 7 March 1982 in Adelaide but had a traditional upbringing and learned about bushtucker and bush medicine with her family. She fondly recalls hunting goanna, walking behind her grandmother, watching and learning how to follow and hunt the animal. She learned to paint from her grandmother who taught her dreaming and now paints a beautiful version of her grandmother’s story, “Tjilkamata Tjukurrpa” the Echidna dreaming using traditional ochre colours in beautifully fine, even rows of very small dots.

Tjukurla has a tiny population of only about 40 people and is extremely remote with minimal services, so her family move between Docker River, Alice Springs and Adelaide, where Rosemary lives now.