Nancy Jackson pink and yellow Tjanpi basket

A handwoven grass and raffia shallow basket, made by Ngaanyatjarra artist Nancy Nyanyana Jackson as part of the Tjanpi Desert Weavers collective.

Nyanyana’s 26 x 7 cm design features a colourful design on the inside of the basket in reds, yellow and pink, and its medium size makes it ideal for display in its own right, or for practical use as a fruit bowl, trinket holder or vide poche.

Nancy Nyanyana Jackson is an artist belonging to the Ngaanyatjarra language and cultural group who lives in the remote community of Warakurna in Western Australia, where she is a highly skilled bush woman, Senior Law Woman, businesswoman and well-respected artist. Nyanyana’s Country is close to the community of Patjarr, and she was born in the bush at a site called Kirritji, her grandfather’s traditional Country, south-west of Kintore near the Western Australian and Northern Territory borders.

Nyanyana first exhibited her fibre artwork at the Tjanpi Tjuta exhibition at Hogarth Gallery in Sydney NSW in 2008, and has since exhibited extensively, with a fibre artwork exhibition almost annually. Notable amongst these was her work in String Theory at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney NSW in 2013, and the collaborative work Tutjurangara Massacre with fellow Tjanpi arst Judith Chambers. Most recently, in 2020, Nyanyana contributed to a collaborative work by Tjanpi Desert Weavers commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia for Know My Name: Australian Women Artists of 1900 to Now (Part One); an exhibition highlighting women artists’ contributions to Australia’s cultural life.

In addition to her fibre artwork, Nyanyana is a well-known painter, represented by Warakurna Arsts, with whom she has exhibited numerous times since their inception in 2005. Important amongst her painting work is the collaborative painting Warakurna Women’s Lasseter Story which is held in the State Collection at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Nyanyana is a kind, caring woman who relentlessly strives for her family and community’s wellbeing, often spending her evenings making baskets to help support her grandchildren. She epitomises what it means to be a Tjanpi arst and has inspired her daughters, daughters-in-law, granddaughters and nieces to create their own income and success through fibre artwork.

Tjanpi Desert Weavers (Tjanpi meaning ‘wild grass’) is an award-winning, Indigenous governed and directed social enterprise of the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council (NPYWC). Tjanpi empowers over 400 women across a 350,000 square km area of the tri-state region of NT, SA and WA to earn an income and remain in their communities on Country.

The basket is part of our shop collection celebrating Anmatyerr artist from Alhalker Country in the Northern Territory, Australia, Emily Kam Kngwarray.

• Artist Nancy Jackson
• Dimensions 26 x 7 cm
• Material Tjanpi grass, Raffia
• ISBN 30605