MAMU TJUTA / LOTS OF SPOOKY SPIRITS!, 2005

Important Aboriginal Art
Melbourne
26 March 2014
137

NURA RUPERT

born 1928
MAMU TJUTA / LOTS OF SPOOKY SPIRITS!, 2005

synthetic polymer paint on canvas

57.5 x 117.0 cm

inscribed verso: artist's name, date and Ernabella Arts cat. NURA014-05

Estimate: 
$2,000 - 3,000
Sold for $3,600 (inc. BP) in Auction 34 - 26 March 2014, Melbourne
Provenance

Ernabella Arts, South Australia
Marshall Arts, Adelaide
Private collection, Adelaide

Catalogue text

This painting is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Ernabella Arts which states: 'Nura is an elderly woman with a great sense of humour and wild imagination, who is still very much in touch with the past and her childhood in the bush. She dares to go where others will not, generally concerned with the action of mamu/spooky spirits. Anangu believe that mamu are to be blamed for illnesses or strange disappearances. In this painting Nura tells the story of two women collecting "mai" (food) they are collecting the red food off the trees. As they sit beneath the trees to eat, the Mamu come. Nura tells how "ninti" (knowledgeable) the Mamu are, they know where and when to come for the red berries and what they are used for...'