Eileen Stevens

Eileen Stevens, a senior Pitjantjatjara artist, was born circa 1915 in the bush at Makiri, the site of the Tjala Minyma Tjukurpa (honey ant woman’s sacred place) in the Pitjantjara Lands of South Australia and passed away in early 2008 aged 93.

Her father was a Yangkunytjatjara man and her mother a Pitjantjatjara woman. As a child she spent time at the Ernabella mission, later moving with her husband to his country at Nyapari, some 100 kilometers south of Uluru at the foot of the Murpatja or Mann mountain ranges. Very rocky in appearance, these mountains are likened by the Anangu to the bony ridges of a person’s spine. Among these are to be found many traditional camping sites and water-holes.