Deutscher and Hackett

Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Private collection, Adelaide
Deutscher and Hackett, Melbourne, 6 October 2010, lot 41
Private collection, Melbourne
 
This work is accompanied by a copy of the certificate of authenticity from Papunya Tula Artists which states:

‘The large roundel in this painting depicts Wirrulnga, a rockhole site in a small rocky outcrop east of the Kiwirrkura Community in Westem Australia. In ancestral times a group of women of the Napaltjarri and Napurrula kinship subsections camped at this site, after travelling from the rockhole site of Ngaminya further west. The women are represented in the painting by the many arc shapes. Wirrulnga is a site which is associated with birth and the lines adjacent to the central roundel symbolises the extended shape of a pregnant woman of the Napaltjarri kinship subsection who gave birth at the site. While at Wirrulnga the women also made spun hair-string with which to make nyimparra (hair-string skirts), which are worn during ceremonies. The comb like shapes in this painting depict the nyimparra. From Wirrulnga the women continued their travels north east to Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay). As they travelled, they gathered large quantities of the bush food known as kampurarrpa or desert raisin from the plant Solanum centrale. These berries can be eaten straight from the bush but are sometimes ground into a paste and cooked in the coals to form a type of damper. The small circles in this painting depict the kampurarrpa.’