Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that the following contains the names of deceased persons.

In Pantu (Salt Lake) Pitjantjatjara artis Janice Stanley depicts pantu (salt lakes) near Atilla (Mt Connor) in the south of the Northern Territory. Pantu are significant locations that feature in her Peoples’ creation story in which the Seven Sisters travel across Country creating landforms in their wake.

Stanley was passed the story of the Seven Sisters from senior artist and aunt Renita Stanley. Stanley observes that,

‘in this part of the story, the Sisters are travelling south through the country…The normally-dry lake comes alive after rain.’¹

In this painting, Stanley imagines the salt lakes from above as the kapi (water), moves across the land it transforms the colour and light on the land.

Janice Stanley
Janice Stanley (born 1987) is a Pitjantjatjara woman, painter and ceramicist based at Ernabella Arts located in the Pukatja community in the north of South Australia. She is the third generation of women in her family to practise and create at Ernabella Arts. Her grandmother, Tjariya Stanley, was a founding artist of this arts centre which was established in 1948. Stanley has exhibited work nationally and internationally, including in Le Havre, France (2021), and Brussels, Belgium (2020).

References
1. ‘Artist feature: Janice Stanley’, Art Almanac, 2023. Accessed May 2024 via: https://www.art-almanac.com.au/everywhen-janice-stanley-2023/