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WALANGKURA NAPANANGKA (born circa 1946)
Acrylic on Belgian linen
122 x 122 cm

This painting depicts designs associated with the rockhole site of Lupul, south of the Kintore
community. The Peewee (small bird) Dreaming is associated with this site. In mythological times a large group of ancestral women gathered to perform the dances and sing the songs associated with this site. While at Lupul the women spun hair-string with which to make nyimparra (hairstring skirts) which are worn during these ceremonies. The lines with adjacent short bars represent these skirts. Upon completion of the ceremonies the women continued their travels north to a site near Nyirrpi. The straight lines depict the surrounding tali (sandhills). As they travelled they gathered large quantities of the edible fruit known as pura (also known in Pintupi as pintalypa) or bush tomato from the small shrub solanum chippendalei. This fruit is the size of a small apricot and after the seeds have been removed, can be stored for long periods by halving the fruit and skewering them onto a stick. The small circles in the work depict the pura.

PROVENANCE
Papunya Tula Artists Pty. Ltd., Alice Springs, painted at Kintore 2006,
Certificate number WN0603164

Walangkura was born sometime in the mid 1940’s beside a rockhole near where the Tjurkurla community was later established. As a young person she travelled with her large family group in the country between Punkilpirri near Docker River, north to Walukirritji rockhole on the southwestern side of Lake MacDonald. Her family was met by a welfare patrol which included Nosepeg Tjupurrula, and were invited to travel in with other Pintupi people to the Haasts Bluff settlement. While living in Haasts Bluff, Walangkura worked for a period in the community laundry, but later moved to Papunya to live with her husband Uta Uta Tjangala who was one of the original shareholders of Papunya Tula Artists. Walangkura first painted for the company in 1997 while she moved between Tjukurla, Kiwirrkura and Kintore, but in early 2002 she spent more of her time in Kintore and Kiwirrkura and began painting regularly.

REPRESENTED
National Gallery of Victoria
Araluen Collection, Alice Springs