NGIPI WARD - KURRATJITI TJUKURRPA

NGIPI WARD
KURRATJITI TJUKURRPA,  2004
77 x 152 cm
acrylic on linen
 
REGION
Patjarr, Gibson Desert, WA
 
PROVENANCE
Kayili Artists, WA Cat No. 04-101
Private Collection, Vic
Art Leven, NSW
 
STORY
Ngipi lived in the small and very remote community of Patjarr in the Gibson Desert of Western Australia, where she led a nomadic life hunting and gathering with her family until well into the 1960s.
This painting depicts a series of water sites that belong to the artist's husband. Ngipi used to accompany her husband to these sites. Along their travels they would reach a big rockhole called Katantjarra. Further on is Yumantjarra, which has has two rockholes . Rabbits can be hunted here. Both Warlku and Purmingka have two rockholes. Later they would reach Mulyartjan, an area with four rockholes west of Patjarr. In this way they would traverse the country kapitu-kapitu, from water to water.
In the Dreaming story (tjukurrpa) that explains the creation of this country, the rockholes were created by Tjilkamarda, the echidna ancestor who in a fit of anger created a hailstorm. He then travelled on to Kuntarantjarra and Yunpalara, a large claypan site, and later to Manmun. Another sacred songline, the Wati Kutjarra (two men) tjukurrpa, also passed through this region and on to Tallalla, Parrantja, and Tukarankatja rockholes, where the two men find and 'take' a women [sic] on their long travels to the south.