Karntakurlangu (Women's Dreaming), 1999 by Dorothy Napangardi 123x36cm Cat 4017DN

In this early work by Dorothy Napangardi, you can see the beginnings of what was to be a very important stylistic development in her later works. Whilst not as minimalist grid-like as her later works, this lovely piece stands on its own, in a gentle interpretation of her country of Mina Mina.

This is the artist’s custodial country, located near Lake Mackay in the Tanami Desert, north of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory of Australia. During the Jukurrpa Ancestral women of the Napangardi and Napanangka sub-section groups (aunt / niece relationship, in which knowledge is passed from one to the other) gathered to collect ceremonial digging sticks ( Karlangu ) that had emerged from the ground. They then proceeded east, performing rituals of song and dance, to the place known as Jankinyi. A large belt of trees ( Allocasuarina decaisneana ) now stand where these digging sticks once were.

Topographically, the sacred site of Mina Mina is made up of two enormous soakage areas that, rarely filled with water, exist as clay-pans. As water soaks into the ground small areas of earth dry out and lift at the edges becoming delineated by salt.

Karntakurlangu literally translates from Warlpiri language into ‘Belonging to Women’. The site depicted is Mina Mina, a sacred women’s site which is located on the far west border of the Northern Territory, near the Western Australian border, close to the great salt lake of Lake MacKay. It comprises of a large claypan that fills with water after rain surrounded by large desert oak trees.

During the Dreaming women of the Napangardi (Dorothy’s ‘skin’ name) and Napanangka (aunties for the Napangardi kinship) sang and danced this country into existence. This is how traditional knowledge is passed on – from auntie (father’s sisters) to niece.