Sally Scales: Atunmananyi munu Kanyini - Holding and Protecting Country.: N.Smith Gallery

In Atunmananyi munu Kanyini – Holding and Protecting Country, Sally Scales honours the enduring role of women as cultural custodians. This powerful solo exhibition brings together vibrant paintings and sculptural pitis (coolamons) crafted from reclaimed road signs, grounding her practice in both innovation and tradition.

Drawing from Pitjantjatjara knowledge systems, Scales explores the ways cultural practices are held, protected, and passed on through generations of women. Her works are deeply personal, yet speak to broader intergenerational stories of care, resilience, and adaptation.

In reworking road signs, symbols of imposed structures, into objects of cultural significance, Scales asserts the strength and sovereignty of Anangu ways of knowing and being. Atunmananyi munu Kanyini is a celebration of cultural continuity, and a call to listen closely to the women who carry Country forward.