This artwork depicts Carlene's family's country which is near Kanpi in the Western APY Lands. The emu (kalaya) is the ancestral being who formed that part of the country as it travelled from Kanpi to Watarru.
Carlene is a senior artist and woman in the Ernabella community.
Her artworks are about tjulpu tjuta (birds). It is very typical for the kalaya to have many children, like Carlene who had six children when she was a younger woman. People call her Tjulpu Thompson, and she says ‘like I did with my children, I now raise chicks every day on canvas and in clay in my work’.