22

WINTJIYA NAPALTJARRI (born circa 1930)

Acrylic on Belgian linen
each 153 x 61 cm

The circles in these paintings depict rockholes and soakage water sites at the
claypan site of Watanuma, north-west of the Kintore Community. A goup of
women, represented by the ‘U’ shapes, camped at this site before travelling to
the rockhole site of Malparingya and continuing east to Pinari, also north-west
of Kintore. While at Watanuma they made spun hair-string for making hairstring
skirts which are worn during ceremonies. The lines in the work represent
the hair-string. They also gathered the seeds known as mungilypa or samphire
from the small fleshy sub-shrub Tecticornia verrucosa. These seeds are ground
into a paste which is cooked in the coals to form a type of unleavened bread.

PROVENANCE
Papunya Tula Artists Pty. Ltd., Alice Springs, painted at Kintore 2003,
Certificate number WN0307085

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, but 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, Darwin
Aboriginal Art Museum, The Netherlands