Kulata Tjuta: Tirkilpa, installation view, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, 2025 © the artists. Photo: APY Art Centre Collective.
Among First Nations Peoples, the Aṉangu men across the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands have a technique of rattling spears before a battle or a war commences. They call this ‘Tirkilpa’.
The late Willy Kaika Burton explains: “We have a technique where we roll spears over each other to make this noise. A long time ago, this noise would be heard before a battle began. Sometimes I hear the Tirkilpa today; it is a different battle today, but the fight is real for us. Aṉangu are fighting for a chance at a better life and for a better future; we are fighting for our grandchildren.”
At the National Gallery of Australia, there is a spectacular installation of about 500 hand-carved wooden spears suspended from the ceiling and reflected in the panels on the floor below. It is practical and memorable, like a little oasis for contemplation. As you leave the noise of the gallery and enter this separate room, these rattling spears in their own dedicated space form an effective zone in which to contemplate their solemn beauty and the fact that each spear is unique. Yet, collectively, they form a mass of similar objects – like a large community. We witness this cloud of spears that seems to descend from the ceiling without ever crashing to earth.
The Kulata Tjuta Project was formally established in 2010 at Tjala Arts in the Community of Amata, when Pitjantjatjara artists Mick Wikilyiri, Frank Young, Barney Wangin, Tiger Palpatja, Hector Burton and Ray Ken formally conceived of the project under the direction of Willy Kaika Burton. It grew from a handful of artists to now include over 200 Aṉangu men of three generations trained in the ancient traditions and skills of carving the wooden spears. This is an ongoing cultural maintenance project, where the skills of carving and making the punu kulata (wooden spear) are passed on to future generations.
Kulata Tjuta: Tirkilpa, installation view, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, 2025 © the artists. Photo: courtesy of APY Art Centre Collective.
I first encountered the Kulata Tjuta spear installation at the 2014 Dark Heart Adelaide Biennial at the Art Gallery of South Australia, curated by Nick Mitzevich. Now, over a decade later, as director of the National Gallery of Australia, he has brought the project to Canberra in an expanded and more substantial form. The multitude of downward thrusting spears suggests that the battle continues and that there is strength in numbers.
Willy Kaika Burton, who left this life five years ago, recalled: “As a child, I sat in a circle surrounded by my brothers, cousins, my father, uncles and grandfathers. This is how I learnt my culture. Our culture works in circles, across the generations. Over the years, I have tried to think of different ways to communicate or express the relationship Anangu have with the country. My spirit, my soul, is my country. It is my family. It is me.”
Kulata Tjuta: Tirkilpa is the largest installation of this project to date, and visually, when considered formally, purely as an artwork, it strikes an unusual balance between monumentality and lightness, transparency and ephemerality.
Kulata Tjuta: Tirkilpa, installation view, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, 2025 © the artists. Photo: courtesy of APY Art Centre Collective.
Kulata Tjuta: Tirkilpa is at the Orde Poynton Gallery, National Gallery of Australia, Parkes Place East, Parkes, until 29 March 2026. The NGA is open daily from 10 am to 5 pm.
Original Article published by Sasha Grishin on Region Canberra.
