Stockroom77 of 546
Click to enlargec.1930 – 2018
- Region
- Central Desert & Tanami
- Community
- Lajamanu
- Language group
- Warlpiri (Walpiri, Walpari, Walpirie)
Women’s Dreaming, 1991
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
116 x 80 cm
Price on application — enquire
- Provenance
- Warnayaka Art Centre, Lajamanu, NT, Cat No. 442 Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW
- Exhibited
- Black Art White Walls – The Anne and Adrian Newstead Collection (Australian regional gallery tour): Grace Cossington Smith Gallery, Wahroonga NSW, 23 January – 30 March 2014 Wagga Wagga Regional Gallery, Wagga Wagga NSW, 7 April – 12 June 2014 Walker Street Gallery, Dandenong Vic, 4 September – 8 October 2014 Moree Plains Gallery, Moree NSW, 1 December 2014 – 29 January 2015 Manning Regional Gallery, Taree NSW, 30 January – 15 March 2015 Burrinja Regional Gallery, Upwey Vic, 4 July – 28 September 2015 Brunswick Regional Gallery, Brunswick Vic, 16 October – 8 November 2015 Caloundra Regional Gallery, Caloundra Qld, 20 January – 28 February 2016 O Tempo dos Sonhos – The Time of Dreaming (Arte Aborígene Contemporânea da Austrália), Caixa Cultural Foundation & Casa Fiat de Cultura, touring 2018 – 2024: Brazil: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza, Curitiba, Brasília, Salvador, Recife, Uberlândia Argentina: Buenos Aires, Córdoba Uruguay: Montevideo
- Artwork story
- This painting depicts a young girl's initiation ceremony. There are eight female kinship groups in the Australian desert. The artist is a senior elder of the Nungarayi kinship group. All Nungarayi daughters are Napaltjarri's. During this special time, the older women of the Nungarayi and Napaltjarri skin groups pass sacred information to the young women of the tribe. This ceremony represents the girl’s transition from childhood into womanhood. The straight lines represent the sacred dancing sticks used during the women's ceremonies. The large U shapes are the older women who are teaching the young girls (the smaller shaped groups) and watching over them to ensure they listen to the information being handed down to them. This ceremony takes place each year at an isolated women's Dreaming site called Duck Pond in the Northern Territory.