This painting depicts designs connected to the sacred site of Karrinyarra. This is a Kapi Tjukurrpa (Water Dreaming) and Yalka Tjukurrpa (Bush Onion) place. The lines can represent water travelling over country and the dots represent the Yalka plant that is in abundance in the area.
Simon’s paintings depict the dreaming stories and the travels of the Tingari, using the traditional concentric circle and line design.
Tingari refers to the Dreaming and its Laws for the Pintupi language group of the Central Western Desert. The Tingari is the Creation era when the Dreamtime Ancestors moved across the lands, creating the features of the landscape and all aspects of the natural world.
Nyunmanu is a Dingo Dreaming site just to the south east of the remote Aboriginal community of Kintore in the Northern Territory. Most of the dingoes and their pups from this place rose up into the sky and became stars. However, the ancestral mother Dingo and her pup had gone out hunting and were too tired to rise up, so they turned into a large rock that marks the place of this sacred Dreaming.
It is said that if you sleep in this place you will dream of the ancestral dingo puppies. The story goes that if you remove one of the gleaming stones found at Nyunmanu, the puppies will haunt your dreams until you return it to the place where it belongs. The custodians of this Tjukurrpa are Nungarrayi, Tjungarrayi, Napaltjarri and Tjapaltjarri women and men.
The circles in this story often represent important waterholes. The roundels extending from the circles are the designs the women paint on their breasts during ceremony.
In this work Carbiene depicts four dreaming stories which he inherited from his father. These tjukurrpa are associated with a series of waterholes running between Docker River and Kata Tjuta. Specifically, it includes four important sites: Petermann Ranges, Docker River, Kalaya Murrpu (Blood’s Range) and Mulyayti near Kata Tjuta.
As a young man, Carbiene returned to these places and retraced the footsteps of his father. These memories stay with him vividly today.
Nyunmanu is a Dingo Dreaming site just to the south east of the remote Aboriginal community of Kintore in the Northern Territory. Most of the dingoes and their pups from this place rose up into the sky and became stars. However, the ancestral mother Dingo and her pup had gone out hunting and were too tired to rise up, so they turned into a large rock that marks the place of this sacred Dreaming.
It is said that if you sleep in this place you will dream of the ancestral dingo puppies. The story goes that if you remove one of the gleaming stones found at Nyunmanu, the puppies will haunt your dreams until you return it to the place where it belongs. The custodians of this Tjukurrpa are Nungarrayi, Tjungarrayi, Napaltjarri and Tjapaltjarri women and men.
The circles in this story often represent important waterholes. The roundels extending from the circles are the designs the women paint on their breasts during ceremony.
The painting depicts designs associated with Kapi Tjukurrpa (Water Dreaming) at Kalipinypa, a site northwest of Kintore. The Tjukurrpa tells of an important rain making ceremony to invoke the elements. It is a powerful storm bringing on the lightning, thunderclouds and rain sending its deluge to rejuvenate the earth, filling rock holes, clay pans and creeks. It has the power to create new life and growth upon the land.
In this painting Glenda has used the larger shapes to depict tali (sand hills) at the site of Kalipinypa. She has also used dots to represent Akatjurra (bush tomato) that have come to life after the rain.
This painting tells one of many water dreamings from the Papunya area. The circles represent important water or rock hole sites. The background design symbolises the landscape after the rains when the earth has been replenished with new growth. The rock holes collect the water during the rains. Knowledge of where to find water is handed down from generation to generation to ensure survival in the desert. This work represents the elements of a storm – wind, rain, thunderclouds and lightning. It also tells the story of rain and water flowing from the waterholes and flooding the usually dry creek beds. If present, the U shapes are the women sitting around the rock holes.
In this painting Kukula has depicted a mob of Red-tailed black cockatoos flying over the Papunya landscape. Kukula refers to them as “Red Bums”.
Janelle painted this after a successful Tjupi bush trip, to forage for Mingkulpa (bush tobacco). She depicts the plant flowering against an evening sky.
The painting depicts designs associated with Kapi Tjukurrpa (Water Dreaming) at Kalipinypa, a site northwest of Kintore. The Tjukurrpa tells of an important rain making ceremony to invoke the elements. It is a powerful storm bringing on the lightning, thunderclouds and rain sending its deluge to rejuvenate the earth, filling rock holes, clay pans and creeks. It has the power to create new life and growth upon the land.
In this painting Glenda has used the larger shapes to depict tali (sand hills) at the site of Kalipinypa. She has also used dots to represent Akatjurra (bush tomato) that have come to life after the rain.