Women of Papunya Tjupi
Women of Papunya Tjupi
Presented by Aboriginal & Pacific Art gallery in association with Papunya Tjupi Arts, Papunya, Northern Territory.
Exhibition Dates: 21 May - 14 June, 2025
Doris Bush Nungarrayi Pilkati antanrumiya (Snake and Goanna) #414-24
Acrylic on linen 91 x 51 cm
Papunya Tjupi Arts
Papunya Tjupi Arts is 100% Aboriginal owned and directed community arts organisation based in Papunya, 250km Northwest of Alice Springs, the birthplace of the Western Desert dot-painting movement. It supports a new generation of artists establishing their own unique identity based on the legacy of their forefathers and mothers. The art centre services around 100 artists from Papuna and surrounding outstations. They have become known for their strong line-wrok and for developing new ways to tell the old stories.
“Papunya Tjupi Artjintalu utjurringanyi walkama-milatjaku
nganampa pitingi ngata matupurra tkurrpa, ngurra, kanyintjaku tjungu ngaratjaku.
Nganana pipirri wima tjutatjarra nititjaku tjukurrapa palya ngaratjaku, artjinta
ngangka nganana tjungu warrkarringi, nganana pukulpangku tjungku warrka palyalpay.”
“Our painting is an important part of our culture and connection to our country. Our teaching and passing of knowledge to the young ones keeps our future strong. Our art centre is a community working space that allows us to provide for our families. We are a proud people who openly share our art.”
Text Courtesy Papunya Tjupi Arts.
Candy Nelson Nakamarra Kalipinypa #29-25
Acrylic on linen 183 x 152 cm
Rosalie Miller Jugadai Napaltjarri Karrinyarra #11-25
Acrylic on linen
122 x 46 cm
This painting depicts designs connected to the sacred site of Karrinyarra. This is a Kapi Tjukurrpa (Water Dreaming) and Yalka Tjukurrpa (Bush Onion) place. The lines can represent water travelling over country and the dots represent the Yalka plant that is in abundance in the area.
Lizzie Nangala Karrinyarra Tjukurrpa #14-25
Acrylic on linen
198 x 122 cm
Text Courtesy Papunya Tjupi Arts.
Candy Nelson Nakamarra Kalipinypa #462-24
Acrylic on linen 152 x 122 cm
Kalipinypa
Through her painting, Candy Nelson Nakamarra depicts designs associated with Kapi Tjukurrpa (Water Dreaming) at Kalipinypa, a site Northwest of Sandy Blight Junction, Western Australia. The Tjukurrpa tells of an important rain making ceremony to invoke the elements. It is a powerful storm bringing on the lightning, thunderclouds and rain sending its deluge to rejuvenate the earth, filling rock holes, clay pans and creeks. It has the power to create new life and growth upon the land.
The different elements of the image represent puuli (hills), tali (sandhills) and kapi (water). Plants and leaves spring up after the heavy rain, nourishing the land and the people. The concentric circles represent waterholes, while the arrow shapes represent the footprints of the white heron that frequents the site.
Text Courtesy Papunya Tjupi Arts.
Nyunmanu is a Dingo Dreaming site just to the south east of the remote Aboriginal community of Kintore in the Northern Territory. Most of the dingoes and their pups from this place rose up into the sky and became stars. However the ancesttral mother Dingo and her pup had gone out hunting and were too tired to rise up, so they turned into a large rock that marks the place of this sacred dreaming.
Text Courtesy Papunya Tjupi Arts.
Doris Bush Nungarrayi
#54-25
Acrylic on linen 76 x 91 cm
linen 91 x 76 cm
Beyula Puntungka Napanangka Kalinykalinypa Tjukurrpa #370-24
Acrylic on
Candy Nelson Nakamarra Kalipinypa #453-24
Acrylic on linen 152 x 91 cm
Karen McDonald Kungka Tjukurrpa at Ilpilli #386-24
Acrylic on linen
91 x 51 cm
This painting represents the sacred site of Ilpilli, Napurrula’s country, which is located between Mt Liebig and Kintore.
Karen’s ancestors (The Napurrula women) were travelling across the land in search of water and came upon this site. They discovered rockholes with water and a creek, which meant there was plenty of food around. This became a significant place and they remained there for a long time.
Eventually the missionaries came and took them to Haasts Bluff.
Text Courtesy Papunya Tjupi Arts.
Karen McDonald Kungka Tjukurrpa at Ilpilli #425-24
Acrylic on linen
122 x 46 cm
The circles in this story often represent important waterholes. The roundels extending from the circles are the designs the women paint on their breasts during ceremony.
In this painting Doris is remembering a day in her childhood where, as a little girl, she walked alone past a hill, the creek and the rockholes at Nyunmanu, which always had water. She saw dingos living in the caves and a Spiritual Woman dancing near one of the waterholes. This Spiritual Woman told Doris that this site was her home dreaming place.
Doris Bush Nungarrayi Papa Tjukurrpa - Nyumannu Memory #55-25
on linen 45 x 122 cm
Text Courtesy Papunya Tjupi Arts.
Acrylic
Alice Napangardi Poulson Kalipinypa Tjukurrpa
#270-24
Acrylic on linen
91 x 51 cm
Alice Napangardi Poulson
Kalipinypa Tjukurrpa #417-24
Acrylic on linen 61 x 30 cm
Beyula is telling the story of the Kalinykalinypa or desert grevillea flower, a favourite bush food for Anangu people and quite a delicacy.
Kalinykalinypa grows in the sandy soils on the plains. The beautiful orange coloured flowers are picked early in the morning and placed in a billycan of water to create ‘honeywater’ (cordial) or sucked straight off the branch for their sweet honey dew. More often than not Anangu move from flower to flower, bending the flowers towards them so they can suck the nectar rather than picking it.
Beyula Puntungka Napanangka Kalinykalinypa Tjukurrpa #466-24
Acrylic on linen 91 x 51 cm
Text Courtesy Papunya Tjupi Arts.
Candy Nelson Nakamarra Kalipinypa #194-21
Acrylic on linen 152 x 122 cm
Polymer on Linen 183 x 183 cm
Puuni Brown Nungarrayi Kapi Tjukurrpa #97-23
Synthetic
Women of Papunya Tjupi
Presented by Aboriginal & Pacific Art in association with Papunya Tjupi Arts, Papunya, Northern Territory
21 May - 14 June 2025
All images and text Copyright 2025 the artists and the community, Papunya Tjupi, Papunya, NT.
Aboriginal & Pacific Art acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the land upon which our gallery stands. We pay our respects to elders past and present.