Lot 45

Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs (accompanied by a certificate of authenticity)
Private collection, Melbourne

"This painting depicts designs associated with the rockhole sites of Umari, situated in sandhill country east of Mt Webb in Western Australia. The roundel in this work represents the rockhole at the site, while the lines represent the tali (sandhills) which surround Umari. A number of ancestral women gathered at Umari to perform ceremonies associated with the site. The women, one of the Nagala kinship subsection and the others of the Napaltjarri kinship subsection, later travelled towards the east. At this site they collected the small seeds known as wangunu or woollybutt from the perennial grass Eragrostis eriopoda, to grind into a paste to make damper.

The women also gathered large quantities of the edible fruit known as pura (also known in Pintupi as pintalpa), or bush tomato, from the small shrub Solanum chippendalei. This fruit is the size of a small apricot, and after the seeds have been removed, can be stored for long periods by halving the fruit and skewering them onto a stick.

One of the ancestral stories associated with the area concerns a relationship between a man of the Tjakamarra kinship subsection and a woman of the Nagala kinship subsection. This is a mother-in-law relationship, which is taboo in Aboriginal culture."
As stated on the Papunya Tula Artists certificate of authenticity

© Tjunkiya Napaltjarri/Copyright Agency, 2023