16

WINTJIYA NAPALTJARRI (born circa 1930)
Acrylic on Belgian linen
137 x 122 cm

The roundels in this painting depict the claypans at the site of Watanuma, north-west of the Kintore Community. A group of women, represented by the ‘U’ shapes, gathered at the site to perform the dances and sing the songs associated with the area. They also spun hair for making hair-string skirts which are worn during ceremonies. The nyimparra (hair-string skirts) in this painting are depicted by the lines with adjacent short bars. Upon completion of these ceremonies the women continued their travels to the rockhole site of Malparingya and then continued east to Pinari, also north-west of Kintore. As they travelled they gathered large quantities of the edible fruit known as pura, also known in Pintupi as pintalypa (bush tomato) from the small shrub Solanum Chippendalei. The small circles in this work depict the pura at this site.

PROVENANCE
Papunya Tula Artists Pty. Ltd., Alice Springs, painted at Kintore 2007,
Certificate number WN0702049

Wintjiya was born at Malparingya, north-west of the Kintore Community and she is the second wife of Turkey Tolson’s father. She later moved to Haasts Bluff with her husband and
then to the Papunya Community when it was established. She participated in the Kintore / Haasts Bluff joint project which was the beginning of her career, and now paints for Papunya Tula. In 1999 Wintjiya contributed to the Kintore womens’ painting as part of the Western Desert Dialysis Appeal.

REPRESENTED
National Gallery of Victoria
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory
Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs
Aboriginal Art Museum, The Netherlands