Alison Milyika Carroll honoured for her walka/tjukurpa art and as leader in South Australia's APY Lands

Alison Milyika Carroll (with her work Minyma Kutjara in inset) draws on ancient Aboriginal ceremonies for her abstract designs.

Multi-discipline artist and APY (Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara) Lands community leader Alison Milyika Carroll was awarded the 2020 national Red Ochre lifetime achievement award for four decades of work been exhibited worldwide, including London, Shanghai and Singapore.

The award, from the Australia Council for the Arts, recognised Carroll’s artistic practice spanning batik, ceramics and paintings, communicating walka (design) and tjukurpa (law, story and Dreaming ). Carroll was born in 1958, in northwest South Australia, at Ernabella Presbyterian mission for Aboriginal people.

After finishing high school in Alice Springs, Carroll returned to Ernabella and worked at the community’s craft centre (started in 1948), making hand-painted bookmarks and gift cards. She also learned batik methods, introduced to the community in 1971.

 After training as a health worker in Adelaide, she went back to work in Ernabella clinic with involvement in the craft centre that became Australia’s oldest Aboriginal community arts centre as Ernabella Arts, serving the Pukatja community. Carroll developed her own abstract designs based on ancient ceremony in various media, including lithographs, etchings and screen printing.

One of her earliest works, a painting on paper, was a finalist for the first national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island art award in 18984. (In 2011, Carroll's uncle, Dickie Minyintri, became one of the oldest people to win the award.) 

Carroll was chair and manager of Ernabella Arts and chairman and director of Aṉanguku Arts and Culture Aboriginal Corporation. Aṉanguku Arts (or Ku Arts) coordinates and supports the art economy on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. Carroll’s husband Pepai also served as its chairman.

Carroll as served on the central desert region NPY (Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara ) Women’s Council and APY Lands Council. Also a member of the Ernabella Choir, Carroll brought her health worker experience to advocating for stronger mental health among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

She was involved in school administration in Ernabella, including serving as the government council chairwoman of Ernabella Aṉangu School from 2011. Carroll won the premier’s award for lifetime achievement at the South Australian Ruby Awards in 2018.