Robin Best, together with tribal elder Nyukana Daisy Baker, established the Ernabella Pottery in the Pitjantjatjara/Yankitjara lands of central Australia. The pair of vessels is a collaboration between the two artists about the sand dunes that cover a vast area of country near Uluru, (Ayres Rock) central Australia. The sand pattern painted by Baker is known as a walka and is more usually found applied on punu (mulga wood figures) using a hot wire (poker work).
The blackened vessel that sits next to the walka vessel is representative of the bushfire, a common method used by aboriginal hunters for herding animals.
The vessels themselves are cast in many layers of fine coloured porcelain, and when viewed directly from above, a pair of deep waterholes can be imagined. Waterholes are the life’s blood of the desert allowing Aboriginal people to travel vast distances without carrying water.