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Women’s Ceremony: Kungka Tjuta, Minyma Tjuta
Women dancing, and the skirts they are wearing, made from their woven hair. The patterning that feature in this painting represents the swirling hair-string skirts worn by the Dancing Women Ancestors during ceremonies when women reaffirm their connections to the each of the Women’s Tjukurrpa through dance and song. The hair-string skirts are woven by the women from their own hair or that of their family using a simple spindle made of two sticks and are shown as a complex pattern of lines. The works are neat and well ordered, but free flowing, filling the canvas with the energetic forms of the women dancing in their skirts. The impact of the work mesmerises, just as the ceremonial performance works its magic. The artwork reveals both bodies moving and the inner or spiritual power, the essence of cultural identity.
Aboriginal women gathering at ceremonial or meeting places. All the women are painting and gathering together with food to prepare for ceremony. Songs and dances are exchanged often at large ceremonial gatherings when many people gather together and when trade goods are also exchanged. These gatherings often occur at the time and place when there is plenty of food. Ceremony is the underlying basis of Aboriginal song, music, dance and visual arts. Ceremony contains many significant elements some of which are specifically related to the movements and activities of Ancestral Tjukurrpa Women.
