The Ken Sisters also known as the Ken Family Collaborative or Ken Sisters Collaborative are a collective of award-winning

Pitjantjatjara The Pitjantjatjara (; or ) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are vari ...

artists from the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands of northern

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

Artists

Tjungkara Ken Tjungkara Ken (born 1 October 1969) is a Pitjantjatjara artist from Amata, South Australia, in the APY lands. She began painting in 1997, when Minymaku Arts was opened by the women of Amaṯa. She started painting professionally in 2008. By that ...

* Tingila Yaritji Young *

Maringka Tunkin Maringka Tunkin (born 1959) is a Pitjantjatjara artist from Central Australia. Life Tunkin was born at Mulga Park in the south-west of the Northern Territory, near the South Australian border in 1959. She is the daughter of Mick Wikilyiri, who ...

* Paniny Mick *

Sandra Ken Sandra or SANDRA may refer to: People * Sandra (given name) * Sandra (singer) (born 1962), German pop singer * Margaretha Sandra (1629–1674), Dutch soldier * Sandra (orangutan), who won the legal right to be defined as a "non-human person" Pla ...

* Freda Brady * Sylvia Ken * Nyanu Ken

History

The Ken Sisters are the daughters of artist Mick Wikilyiri, a Traditional Owner of Tjala (Honey Ant) Country. They live and work in Amata community and are represented by

Tjala Arts Tjala Arts, formerly known as Minymaku Arts, is an Aboriginal Australian-owned and -managed arts centre located in the remote community of Amata in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in the remote north-west of South Australia. ...

and

APY Art Centre Collective Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara, also known as APY, APY Lands or ''the Lands'', is a large, sparsely-populated local government area (LGA) for Aboriginal people, located in the remote north west of South Australia. Some of the aṉangu ...

. As part of the Western Desert art movement, they work collaboratively, at times painting the one canvas simultaneously on the studio floor. As Tjunkara Ken describes "that's the way I came up painting, kids sitting down with grandmas, and grandma telling the story and putting dots down". They regularly paint ''Tjala tjukurpa'' (Honey Ant dreaming) and to ''Kungkarangkalpa tjukurpa'' (Seven Sisters dreaming), "two stories that are their birthright and their bond". ''Seven Sisters'' by Tjungkara Ken, Yaritji Young, Freda Brady, Maringka Tunkin and Sandra Ken was the winner of the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...

Wynne Prize The Wynne Prize is an Australian landscape painting or figure sculpture art prize. As one of Australia's longest-running art prizes, it was established in 1897 from the bequest of Richard Wynne. Now held concurrently with the Sir John Sulman Prize ...

in 2016. They also won the People's Choice Award at the

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award The National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA) is Australia's longest running Indigenous art award. Established in 1984 as the National Aboriginal Art Award by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin, ...

in 2018. Their work has been exhibited in the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art at the

Art Gallery of South Australia The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as the National Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located in Adelaide. It is the most significant visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of ...

, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Know My Name exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia and a range of commercial galleries. It is included in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Artbank, National Museum of Australia and The Deakin University Art Collection.

References

{{Authority control Australian women artists Australian artists Australian Aboriginal artists