Therese Ryder (born 1946) (

skin Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. Other cuticle, animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have diffe ...

name: Ngale – Perrule) is an Eastern

Arrernte Arrernte (also spelt Aranda, etc.) is a descriptor related to a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples from Central Australia. It may refer to: * Arrernte (area), land controlled by the Arrernte Council (?) * Arrernte people, Aboriginal Australi ...

artist from Ltyentye Apurte Community, 82 km south east of

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

. Ryder, part of the

Iltja Ntjarra Many Hands Art Centre Iltja Ntjarra Many Hands Art Centre, or Many Hands Art Centre, is an Aboriginal owned and directed art centre based in Alice Springs and it is home to, and has a special focus on supporting, the Hermannsburg School; the best known artist of whi ...

, is primarily a landscape artist and paints her traditional lands in the Central Desert. Ryder is also a linguist who significantly contributed to the "Central and Eastern Arrernte Dictionary" (1994) and also authored a book "Ayeye thipe-akerte: Arrernte stories about birds" (2017).

Life and work

Ryder was born at Todd River Station where her father Jack worked mustering cattle and her mother Nancy as a cook. Ryder's fathers' country is Loves Creek, N'Dhala Gorge,

Trephina Gorge Trephina Gorge is a gorge in the Northern Territory of Australia located in the locality of Hart in the East MacDonnell Ranges about east of Alice Springs. The gorge is named after the Trephina Creek which is believed to be named after ...

, Corroboree Rock and Williams Well; the Arrernte name for this country is Pwanya. Ryder's mothers country is

Titjikala Titjikala (also known as Tapatjatjaka and formerly known as " Maryvale", after the cattle station at the community of the same name) is an Aboriginal community in the south of the Northern Territory of Australia. At the , Titjikala had a popul ...

but she was born at

Maryvale Station Maryvale Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is situated about south of Alice Springs and east of Yulara. The ephemeral Finke and the Hugh River both flow through the pro ...

. The family travelled frequently until, when Ryder was between the ages of 6 and 7, they moved to Santa Theresa Mission (which is now the Ltyentye Apurte Community). It is not known what caused the move to the mission but, while there, Ryder had to live in the dormitories with the other children, away from her parents. While at the mission, and from a young age, Ryder was taught to paint in watercolour which remains her primary medium although she does sometimes incorporate traditional dot-style works. About her painting Ryder states that: In 1978 Ryder moved to Alice Springs where she began working with the

Institute for Aboriginal Development An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

, in the language department, where she worked on the "Central And Eastern Arrernte Dictionary" which was published in 1994 and also worked for Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College (a Catholic high school) teaching the

Arrernte language Arrernte or Aranda (; ) or sometimes referred to as Upper Arrernte (Upper Aranda), is a dialect cluster in the Arandic language group spoken in parts of the Northern Territory, Australia, by the Arrernte people. Other spelling variations are A ...

. In addition to this language work Ryder continued to work as an artist, through Iltja Ntjarra Many Hands Art Centre "the home of the Namatjira watercolour artist" and discovered that Albert Namatjira was a distant uncle on her mother's side. Ryder has achieved success as an artist and her works are part of many major national collections and she has been exhibited throughout Australia. Following this, in 2017, Ryder wrote and illustrated "Ayeye thipe-akerte: Arrernte stories about birds" which shares her appreciation for country and the birds that live there; in this Ryder writes about the birds songs and their role in being both messengers and food. An example of this is the angepe (crow) of which she says: This book was published alongside a poster and app combining her illustrations with the Arrernte and English names of

Central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and i ...

n birds. These were published by Batchelor Press and the Centre for Australian Languages and Linguistics.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryder, Therese Living people 1946 births Artists from the Northern Territory Australian Aboriginal artists Indigenous Australian linguists Arrernte people 20th-century Australian women artists 20th-century Australian artists 21st-century Australian women artists 21st-century Australian artists 20th-century linguists 21st-century linguists Women linguists Lexicographers Linguists of Pama–Nyungan languages

Life and work

See also

References