Freddy Ken Pitjantjatjara, b. 1950

When I was a young bloke I was working with cattle doing fencing, cattle pens, sometimes building houses, pipelines, working on the roads building the highway. I was working with dynamite and it was dangerous. I used to ride horses and sometimes bulls at the bronco rides.

 

I started painting in Amata. Then I went out working in land management, looking after the country. Now I’ve come back to Ernabella to be with family and I’m painting again. I paint a lot of stories, lots of dancing. My father and my grandfather told me lots of stories, for a long time we have no TV. My country is sandhill country, it’s good country, little bit rough.

 

My feeling is when the picture comes I have to paint it. These are stories from my memory, and from memory come pictures.

 

Freddy Ken