Kulinmaya! Keep Listening Everybody! is the story of Mr Williams’ life, beliefs and artistic journey, as he told it, in Pitjantjatjara and English.
Mr Williams (1952-2019) was one of the founders and directors of Mimili Maku Arts. He was an exhibiting artist for over ten years, and finalist in a number of art prizes since 2016. He is best known for his iconic paintings incorporating scrawling writing on Australia Post mailbags, suspended from traditional kulata (spears). Long before becoming an artist, Mr Williams was widely known across the APY Lands as a skilled orator, thinker and cultural leader. Creating Kulinmaya! Keep listening, everybody! was his long-held dream as it would be a vessel to disseminate his message far and wide.
The book has become a thorough insight into the life of a cultural leader on the APY Lands. It combines contemporary and historical photographs with a range of Mr Williams’ artworks, and allows readers to engage more deeply with the meanings and stories behind his artwork, in particular as it relates to the long struggle for land rights on the APY Lands. Recorded in Mr Williams’ first language, Pitjantjatjara, the project was as much about recording his life story, as it was about maintenance of language. For Mr Williams it was paramount that young children on the APY Lands should continue to learn Pitjantjatjara at school. With his book, he is making an essential contribution to this celebration of language: No other book of this extent has been written entirely in Pitjantjatjara.