Erin Butcher

Erin is one of the youngest artists at Ikuntji and is the daughter of artists Alison Multa and Gordon Butcher. Having grown up surrounded by established and inspiring artists, Erin paints with Ikuntji Artists in her spare time and has experimented with different mediums.

Her father, Gordon, is the founding member and drummer in the famous Warumpi Band alongside Sammy Butcher, George Rrurrambu and Neil Murray, Gordon was born at Papunya and he lived in Ikuntji with his wife, kids and grandkids. Gordon was a respected elder member of the community and used to be Land Council representative for the Western Area. As well as a musician he was a well known artist and woodcarver. Gordon worked in the studio and maintenance of the art centre grounds and painted in his spare time. Gordon passed away in early 2020.

Erin’s mother, Alison, was born in Alice Springs in Central Australia and moved with her mother back to her country near Haasts Bluff. Alison’s home country is 200km west of Haasts Bluff in and around the Cleland Hills, sand hill country beyond the West MacDonnell Ranges, with a permanent dwelling at Brown’s Bore enabling her to return and visit the places sacred to her family and renew her connections with the land. In Alison’s own words…… My grandfather’s Tjukurrpa is the Moon story. The moon story travels from south of Brown’s Bore right through to Santa Teresa, passing through Glen Helen. Today I paint in the art centre, but not just tjukurrpa. You can’t just paint anything. Because if you paint anyone’s dreaming, or anyone’s story, you’ll get in trouble, that’s too dangerous. You got to do your own painting, your own story. You got to be careful. You got to do grandmother’s, grandfather’s, not just anyone’s. That’s why I like to do not just tjukurrpa paintings. I am painting fire stories now, because for Anangu people fire is the reason for everything, fire is very important in our culture and our lives.