Robert Fielding’s subject, Tuppy Ngintja Goodwin, is a senior Pitjantjatjara Elder and artist committed to passing on her Aṉangu cultural knowledge. She was a finalist in the 2023 Wynne Prize.
‘Ngintja is my nanna, a cultural leader, a boss, an artist and a storyteller. She has been a teacher to our kids, a teacher to me. She is a person of beauty, power and significance, passing on tjukurpa (story) and inma (songs),’ says Fielding, a first-time Archibald and Wynne finalist who lives in Mimili on the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands.
‘Sometimes, when sitters share their life story, we say, “Isn’t this beautiful!” But I want to ask, “What is it, this beauty? Why do we think someone’s story is worth telling?”
‘I see miil-miilpa, the sacredness, in each individual. This sacredness that we recognise as beauty is held within our duties, responsibilities and cultural leadership. We rise to the challenge of our lives, share in the eternal storylines, and find ourselves by coming together with others,’ says Fielding.
‘Ngintja is my nanna, but this portrait is also a landscape – a landscape of the inner sacredness that connects us all.’