Senior Pitjantjatjara artist Tuppy Ngintja Goodwin has been announced as the winner of the annual acquisitive Hadley’s Art Prize 2022 – Australia’s richest landscape prize worth $100,000 – for her work titled Antara. Goodwin is the first woman to win the major prize since its inception in 2017.

Tuppy Ngintja Goodwin’s work Antara depicts the ancient storyline of Maku Tjukurpa, or Witchetty Grub story, from Mimili, an Anangu community on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in the north west of South Australia. Tuppy Ngintja Goodwin captures the vast, arid landscape of Antara, a sacred ceremonial site northwest of Mimili community characterised by rounded granite hills, low scrub and sandplains.

Tuppy Ngintja Goodwin said: “I paint the Antara storyline, the Witchetty Grub Tjukurpa. It’s a very old story from a long time ago that I was taught when I moved to Mimili as a young girl. Now I look after it and teach it to the children. The Witchetty Grub story is a big ceremony. There are three deep rock holes where we go and lots of songs associated with this place. I love to sing them when I paint, sharing them with my granddaughters and friends.”