Helen Curtis

Pitjantjatjara Language Group

“Cave Hill”

100 x 100cm

Ref No: HC13388

This is kapi tjukula (the deep rockholes) and karu (the creek lines) in my country Cave Hill. This is a sacred place for the Seven Sisters Dreaming. Minyma tjuta (the sisters) are sitting inside the cave, they have been collecting bush tucker, desert raisens and bush tomatos. They wait inside the cave, hiding from the cheeky man, Wait Nyiru. This country is from my father.

Helen was born in 1973 in Alice Springs hospital, over 600kms from her traditional country Cave Hill, near Amata, where she grew up. Cave Hill is the songline of the Seven Sister's Tjukurpa, an important Dreaming site fro the central desert people. Her family moved to Mutjitjulu at Uluru where she worked as a guide for Anangu Tours. She taught visitors about Aboriginal culture and traditional food collection and preparation. Today Helen lives with her mother Angkaliya Curtis at Nyapari Community.