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PANTJIYA NUNGURRAYI (born circa 1936)
Acrylic on Belgian linen
137 x 122 cm

This painting depicts the rockhole site of a Kungkiyunti (Browns Bore), west of Haasts Bluff. A group of women camped at this site to perform the ceremonies associated with the area. The women later travelled west to Ngutjulnga, just to the east of the Kintore Community, where they all perished from the cold as they were unable to get their fire-sticks to light. A small group of rounded rocks at this site is said to represent the women as they hunched their backs against the cold. At the centre of this work is the rockhole at the site, with the line
work surrounding representing the sandhills around Kungkiyunti.

PROVENANCE
Papunya Tula Artists Pty. Ltd., Alice Springs, painted at Kintore 2003,
Certificate number PN0310236

Pantjiya was born in the bush near Haasts Bluff circa 1936, prior to the mission being established. Her first contact with white people was as a young girl, when she and her family met with men who were travelling by camel and distributing rations. During the latter part of the seventies Pantjiya lived with her family between Kungkiyunti outstation west of Haasts Bluff and Papunya before settling in Kintore soon after the community was established in the early eighties. She is the widow of George Tjangala, who was also an artist and an early shareholder of Papunya Tula Artists. Pantjiya has five sons and three daughters, one of her sons, Raymond Maxwell Tjampitjinpa, also paints for the company.

REPRESENTED
Aboriginal Art Museum, The Netherlands
Artbank