A NEW exhibition in South Fremantle features one of the most iconic and powerful Dreaming stories in First Nations culture.

Rich in spiritual and astronomical history, The Seven Sisters is a rich, ancient narrative that spans thousands of kilometres across Aboriginal lands.

It tells the story of seven ancestral women fleeing from Wati Nyiru, a trickster figure. After a lengthy journey across Country, they ultimately take flight into the sky to become the Pleiades star cluster.

Artists featured in the exhibition include the late Angkaliya Curtis. Born in 1928, she spent much of her early life living semi-nomadically in the South Australian desert.

• (Above and below) Artworks by Madeline Curley and Angkaliya Curtis in  Seven Sisters | The Collector’s Show.

She later settled in Amata in the Pitjantjatjara Lands, becoming a widely respected artist with works in major collections worldwide.

The Seven Sisters story is shared by multiple Aboriginal communities, each offering their own interpretation based on Country and language.

Central themes include escape, resilience, transformation and the sacred relationship between land, sky and people.

“Many of the remote art centre artists we work with paint the Seven Sisters story,” says Anna Kanaris, director of the Artitja Fine Art Gallery.

“Each artist offers a unique perspective depending on where the Sisters’ passed through their Country.

“For example, Angkaliya Curtis painted Cave Hill, a significant rest site, while Meredith Curley from Fregon depicts an important rock hole where the women drank water.”

The exhibition has received the blessing of professor Margo Ngawa Neale, a Gumbaynggirr and Wiradjuri woman who curated Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters exhibition.

It opened at the WA Museum Boola Bardip in 2020 and toured around the world.

“This is the most remarkable exhibition of the Seven Sisters songlines I have seen since the original major one,” Prof Neale says.

Seven Sisters | The Collector’s Show is free and on from June 14-July 13 at Earlywork, 330 South Terrace, South Fremantle. The gallery is open Wednesday to Sunday 10am-4pm.