Kuluntjarra is a salt lake about twenty kilometres west of Patjarr. It was created by two men (Wati Kutjarra Tjukurrpa) who were hunting and camping at Wanaritjarra, a small but deep rockhole near the lake. The two men found mingkurrpa (native tobacco) growing around the lake, which they picked and chewed. It was too strong and made them very sick. They started to sweat and then throw up. They vomited copiously and created the salt lake which is always soft on top.
Neville McArthur is from Warburton and now resides at Wanarn Aged Care. This painting is about a Kunyia that travelled all the way from Kuru Alala to Lake Baker.
George Ward Tjungurrayi was born in the desert west of Kiwirrkura in 1947. George’s painting depicts a story about Tingari men travelling through his ancestral country from rockhole to rockhole meeting other Tingari men for business Lake MacDonald way. The men turned into Warnambi.
Warakurna Artists works closely with Wanarn Aged Care Facility to conduct painting sessions with elderly patients. This program nurtures artists who have arguably contributed largely to one of the most significant art movements in Australia. The joyous communal activity has a myriad of positive benefits such as reliving boredom and frustration. Health staff report that this diversional therapy helps to reduce patient’s drug intake and the old people rejoice in sharing and passing on their important Tjukurrpa with their families who visit them when the workshops are conducted. Warakurna Artists is a positive and powerful example of Aboriginal businesses managed and governed by artists and community elders ensuring the wealth of talent and economic returns are retained in the community.
Elaine is a painter from Papulankutja (Blackstone) who now resides at Wanarn Aged Care. Elaine paints tjukurrpa from her country of Papulankutja, which includes songlines for associated tjukurrpa of Wati Kutjarra and Lirru – carpet python dreaming.
Warakurna Artists works closely with Wanarn Aged Care Facility to conduct painting sessions with elderly patients. This program nurtures artists who have contributed largely to one of the most significant art movements in Australia. The joyous communal activity has a myriad of positive benefits such as reliving boredom and frustration. Health staff report that this diversional therapy helps to reduce patient’s drug intake and the old people rejoice in sharing and passing on their important Tjukurrpa with their families who visit them when the workshops are conducted. Warakurna Artists is a positive and powerful example of Aboriginal businesses managed and governed by artists and community elders ensuring the wealth of talent and economic returns are retained in the community.
There were two sisters who married two brothers and they all lived together. One day the women went wandering and they went such a long way that they forgot about their husbands. Back at the camp, the two husbands were thinking, ‘Where are our wives?’ and they decided to go looking for them. One brother said to the other, ‘What should we become to go looking for them?’ and the other brother said ‘Why don’t we become Rainbow Serpents?’ And they travelled in the sky looking down for their wives. Finally they see them hunting for carpet snakes and they put something in the hole where the women were digging. The women find it and then dig another hole and once again the men have put something in there. And this is how the men lure the women back to Piltati where the men make the sisters transform into Wanampi, swallow them and keep .them in their throats. All four of them live together in the waterhole and still live there today.
This painting depicts the tjukurrpa story about the tingarri men, women and children traveling from rock hole to rock hole. The tingarri people travelled north through Wirrintjunku, Pukaritjarra, Tarkal, Nyun and Kirritji as they move toward Tjukurla.
Mr Ward’s works can be read as visual histories, as well as maps of his country. Mr Ward is a well-respected artist and senior desert man based in Warakurna, Ngaanyatjarra Lands WA.
The tingarri* people, men, women and children travelled north through Wirrintjunku, Pukaritjarra, Tarkal, Nyun and Kirritji as they move toward Tjukurla. Tingarri Song Cycle depicting the route of dreamtime people who travelled from the sea near Port Hedland to the northern part of the central desert. It also refers to the route and to the dreamtime people who followed that route.
I am painting Yankuntjuntju. It is my grandmother’s country, close to Patjarr. There’s a rockhole close. I like to paint my story, my grandfather’s, my grandmother’s. My father’s mother passed away at that rockhole, that is why I’m painting. My grandmother had two sons, two daughters. [She] passed away right there, rockhole side. I also paint Karrku, that’s my nyal-ku Tjukurrpa, (my dreaming) Porcupine dreaming in that place. I think about these stories and my family when I am painting. Proper story. Painting keeps my family, and these stories close to me.
