Ngalyipi Jukurrpa (Snakevine Dreaming) - Mina Mina, Valda Napangardi Granites
Ngalyipi Jukurrpa (Snakevine Dreaming) - Mina Mina, Valda Napangardi Granites 3182/20
French acrylic on Belgian linen 183x91
Destretched $3031
Stretched $3231
This ‘Ngalyipi Jukurrpa’ (snakevine [Tinospora smilacina] Dreaming) comes from Mina Mina. Mina Mina is an extremely important ceremonial site for Napangardi and Napanangka women that is located approximately 600kms west of Yuendumu, just east of Lake Mackay and the WA border. The area has a ‘marluri’ (salt lake or claypan) that is usually dry, without water. There are also a number of ‘mulju’ (soakages), sandhills, and a large stand of ‘kurrkara’ (desert oaks). The Mina Mina Jukurrpa is an important source of Warlpiri ritual knowledge and social organization, particularly relating to the different roles performed by men and women.
Valda Napangardi Granites is the grand-daughter of the late Paddy Japaljarri Sims (1916 – 2010) and Bessie Nakamarra Sims (1932 – 2012), two founding artists of Warlukurlangu Artists. Valda was born in 1974 in Alice Springs and grew up in Yuendumu, an Aboriginal community located 290 kms north-west of Alice Springs, where she still lives. She attended the local school. Valda has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 1993, She paints the Jukurrpa (Dreaming) stories passed down to her by her mother and father and their parents before them for millennia. These are creation stories which closely relate to the features and animals found in her family’s traditional lands. Valda is married and has one daughter. She worked with the Yuendumu Old People’s program before resigning to look after her daughter.
