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NINGURA NAPURRULA (born circa 1938)
Acrylic on Belgian linen
153 x 122 cm

The roundel in this painting depicts Wirrulnga, a rockhole site in a small rocky outcrop east of the Kiwirrkura community in Western Australia. In mythological times a group of ancestral women of the Napaltjarri and Napurrula kinship subsections camped at this site, after travelling from the rockhole site of Ngaminya further west. The women are represented in the
painting by the many arc shapes. Wirrulnga is a site that is associated with birth and the lines
adjacent to the central roundel symbolizes the extended shape of a pregnant woman of the Napaltjarri kinship subsection who gave birth at the site. While at Wirrulnga, the women also spun hair-string with which to make nyimparra (hair-string skirts), which are worn during ceremonies. The comb-like shapes in this painting depict the nyimparra. From Wirrulnga the women continued their travels north-east to Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay). As they travelled they gathered large quantities of the bush food known as kampurarrpa (desert raisin) from the plant Solanum Centrale. The circles in this painting represent the kampurarrpa the women collected at Wirrulnga.

PROVENANCE
Papunya Tula Artists Pty. Ltd., Alice Springs, painted at Kintore 2006,
Certificate number NN0608196

Ningura Napurrula was born at Watulka, south of the Kiwirrkura community. She married Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi and together with their young son Morris they went to the Papunya Tula community after meeting up with Jeremy Long during one of his welfare patrols. In 1999 Ningura contributed to the Kintore womens’ painting as part of the Western Desert Dialysis Appeal. In 2004 she was one of eight Aboriginal artists selected to have an example of their work incorporated into the architecture of the Musee du quai Branly in Paris.

REPRESENTED
National Gallery of Australia
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory