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Grace Kemarre Robinya

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All the birds flying and enjoying the water after the big rain. Cloudy day.

  • Dimensions: 25.5cm x 33.7cm (unframed)
  • Cat No. 13508-24


Grace Kemarre Robinya is a celebrated artists from Tangentyere Artists, based in Mparntwe/Alice Springs. Robinya was born and raised in Ntaria (Hermannsburg), her father was a Rubuntja from Mt Hay (Urre), and her mother was an Ungkwanaka from Running Water (Irremangkere). Robinya has fond recollections of sewing and playing sport at the Lutheran Mission of Hermannsburg, but admits she eloped at only sixteen with her husband, and never looked back! She married and travelled to Coniston Station with her husband. There she had her children, surrounded by cousins and elders in the then thriving Aboriginal camp located near the then operating station. Her children claim as their father’s Country, Paddy’s Well, north of 20 Mile Waterhole on Napperby Station. An artist and seed jeweller of many years standing, Robinya hot-wires and paints traditional patterns onto gum nuts, which she threads together with the Innernte (Batwing Coral) and other seeds she collects during winter. Robinya’s paintings have always been highly considered and labour intensive, and generally distinguished by very neat multi-layered dot work, balanced colour schemes and symmetrical compositions. More recently, Robinya’s figurative paintings, often near miniatures, detail important locations and events in her life: her childhood at Hermannsburg Mission and surrounding Ntaria region, or visits to her beloved Irremangkere. She also records details of station life at Coniston and Napperby Stations, where she and her husband worked as a domestic, and ringer respectively, while raising their family. A frequent return visitor to Laramba Aboriginal Community now established on Napperby Station, Robinya also documents exciting football and softball carnivals in which her grandsons and granddaughters feature, playing for the winning Anmatyerr teams. These and other works detail life in the remote Aboriginal communities in which Robinya has lived throughout her life.


Established in 2005, Tangentyere Artists is an Aboriginal owned, not-for-profit enterprise for Town Camp Artists. When Tangentyere Artists began, Jukurrpa Artists, Warumpi and Sandover Arts (all art centres previously operating in Alice Springs) had closed. Irrkerlanyte Arts and Ngurratjuta Iltja Ntjarra were servicing a limited number of Town Camp families. Tangentyere Artists was established with the express aims of combatting the prevalence of carpetbaggers, providing professional and career development opportunities to artists and operating an industry best practice enterprise. Today, Tangentyere Artists is the central hub for arts activities across the Town Camps. This includes the internationally renowned Yarrenyty Arltere Artists, located at Larapinta Town Camp. We work to a studio, gallery and outreach program, supporting emerging and established artists. Tangentyere Artists also welcome Aboriginal artists visiting town from remote communities, offering an open and safe environment where people from across Central Australia can sit down together to create artworks and share artistic skills as well as stories. Tangentyere Artists is committed to innovative, sustainable, fine art outcomes for Town Camp Artists. We are renowned for figurative paintings, diversity of mark making, rich colour palettes and embracing traditional and contemporary Aboriginal art making. Our practice includes short animations. Through their art, Town Camp artists communicate stories about their families, identity and everyday lives. Their contemporary art practice aims to show the everyday experience of Aboriginal people in Central Australia and through this work Tangentyere Artists have become part of the national conversation on reconciliation.


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