Janice Stanley — 'Pantu' (Salt Lake), 2025

A very significant tjurkurpa (story) to Anangu is Kungkarangkalpa (Seven Sisters) which is an extensive creation story relating to the Pleiades constellation. The story traverses Australia taking different forms, and local women are privy to the part of the story which takes place in the country near Ernabella.

In her paintings Janice is depicting a salt-lake near Attila (Mt Connor) a landmark in the Seven Sisters story. This story has been passed down to her by senior artist and aunt Renita Stanley. In this part of the story the sisters are walking and traveling south through this country. The Salt Lake that is a part of this arid county comes alive after rain. As the kapi (water) moves across the land it transforms the colour and light on the land and Janice is painting this change and movement.

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Community: Ernabella (Pukatja), SA

Janice Stanley is the third generation of Stanley women to create artwork at Ernabella Arts. She is an early career painter and ceramic artist showing great promise. Her grandmother is founding artist and traditional healer Tjariya Stanley and her aunts are senior artists, Alison Milyika Carroll and Renita Stanley. Janice's paintings depict pantu, or salt lakes near Atilla (Mt Connor). This is a significant location for the seven sisters creation story. This story tells of seven sisters running across the country creating landforms in their wake. Although Janice has never seen them from this perspective herself, she imagines viewing the salt lakes from above.

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Iriwi Arts Centre and Craft Victoria 

Iwiṟi was established by Aṉangu in 2018, many of whom had been forced to move to Adelaide due to chronic health conditions and lack of services in their home communities. Living far from their traditional homelands, Anangu were concerned about the cultural and social isolation they were experiencing and saw a need to act.  Iwiri was formed initially to help retain, promote and transmit Anangu culture and language through the areas of arts, language, knowledge and community. Since then Iwiṟi has grown rapidly into an organization that delivers a range of programs that aim to strengthen and advance Aṉangu wellbeing.

Iriwi's Artists range from highly experienced elders and knowledge custodians through to younger emerging artists. Iwiri studio is used by Anangu artists living in Adelaide as well as artists from the APY lands who are visiting for health or social reasons. The Art Studio has a strong ceramics and painting program and is experimenting with textiles.

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Material: Clay sculptural vessel

Dimensions:  235 x 145 x 40mm

Cat. no: 25-274