NURA RUPERT
b. 1933As a teenager, Nura Rupert learned weaving in the Ernabella craft room, making hooked floor rugs and knitted garments, and worked with punu (wood carving) decorated with walk a, a burnt-line technique. Around 2000, Rupert returned to the art centre to make mukata (beanies) and began painting.
As an older woman, she often drew on stories remembered from childhood, particularly mamu—the spirits and monsters ofAṉangu storytelling. The piece, Papa Tjuta Tjukurpa – Camp Dog Story (2010), turns instead to the familiar presence of dogs around Ernabella. “Papa tjuta ngura uwankara,” Rupert explained—there are many dogs everywhere—recalling that some families kept as many as ten as companions. The work captures something characteristic of Rupert’s practice: the ability to bring memory, observation and storytelling together with humour and directness, transforming an everyday scene into a vivid account of community life.
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