About this artwork
Tjala or honey ants live in nests about a metre underground beneath mulga trees, and they are a highly favoured food source. The tjala tunnels that lead down to the ants’ nests are called nyinantu, and the larvae are called ipilyka-ipilyka. After the rain when the ground is soft the women go digging for tjala by looking for the drill holes under the trees. They then use shovels and crowbars to dig down following the tunnels to find the tjala inside. Anangu suck the delicious rich honey-like liquid from the distended abdomen of the tjala. The story of the tjala is told across the Northern Territory into South Australia and is an important link between Anangu mythology and inter-dependence on the environment.
About Lynette Lewis
ARTIST: Lynette Lewis ART CENTRE: Ernabella Arts REGION: Central Australia ARTWORK STORY Lynette is fast becoming one of Ernabella's leading ceramic artists. Lynette first began as an arts worker at Ernabella Arts at the start of 2015 when her school age children were at school. Prior to this, Lynette had done tjanpi (weaving) at home and years earlier create a suite of prints at the art centre. In mid-2015 Lynette participated in two workshops leading up to the exhibition at Sabbia Gallery - Yangupala Tjuta Waakarinyi (Many Young People Working). She then attended the Australian Ceramics Triennale in Canberra with three other artists and demonstrated at the Sabbia Gallery exhibition that toured to the Australian National Botanical Gardens Gallery. In late 2015 Lynette also participated in a contemporary jewellery workshop with jeweller Mel Young at Ernabella as part of the Indigenous Jewellery Project. She created some exceptional resin and traditional seed necklaces during the workshop, were exhibited at Whistlewood, Victoria in March 2016. In 2016 Lynette was also selected as a finalist in the National Contemporary Jewellery Award at Griffith Regional Gallery. In mid-2016 Lynette worked alongside seven other Ernabella women potters to create a collaborative ceramics installation for the Indigenous Ceramics Art Award at the Shepparton Art Museum, Victoria in August 2016. In 2017 her work was presented in Clay Stories: Indigenous ceramics from remote Australia at Sabbia Gallery, Sydney. The exhibition will tour regional Australia from October. Lynette's mother Atipalku is a senior artist, her sister Langaliki is also works as a painter and her father Adrian Intjalki is an established punu (timber) artist.
