Willy Tjungurrayi

Born at Patjantja, south-west of Lake Mackay c.1930 Willy was raised by his father’s brother,
Charlie Tarawa Tjungurrayi, who was one of the founding members of the Western Desert
pictorial movement. The younger brother of Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi, It was his uncle
Charlie's camels and assistance which eventually brought the family and other Pintupi people
to Haasts Bluff in December 1956 and from there eventually on to Papunya. In June of 1974
Willy participated in a visit to Yayayi, Kulkuta and Yawalyuru sponsored by the Australian
Institute for Aboriginal Studies, an event that also included his brother Yala Yala, John
Tjakamarra, George Yapa Tjangala along with others.

Willy began painting for Papunya Tula Artists in 1976 and joined the move back to the Pintupi
homelands during the early '80s. He has since emerged as one of the most well known senior
Pintupi painters. He also helped raise the artist Joseph Tjapaltjarri, who was only a boy when
brought into Papunya by the Northern Territory Welfare Branch patrols in the 1960’s. He now
lives at Walungurru (Kintore), his land lying to the south west of Papunya.
He paints the sandhill country north of Kirrikurra, as well as Tingari story.

Collections:

Art Gallery of NSW
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Holmes a Court,
Victorian Centre for the Performing Arts
Kluge Collection, Virginia USA 

William King Jungala

William King was born in 1966 in Katherine in the Northern Territory. The artist began painting
and sketching at a young age. In 1994 he was selected among other prominent Aboriginal
artists to exhibit in ‘The Gallery of Greater Victoria’, in British Columbia, Canada, as part of
the Commonwealth Games celebrations.

William spent most of his childhood with his father and uncles, who as members of the
Gurindji tribe, taught and mentored William. His grandfather, who had travelled extensively
across the country and had a close connection with the land, passed down his stories and
vast knowledge about the desert to the younger man.

As a result, William’s work is greatly influenced by his grandfather’s teaching and he
successfully inter-mingles his own unique style and images with other art styles taken from
many locations and experiences. ‘Earth Images’ depicts William’s combined knowledge of the
physical terrain and the Dreamtime stories which relate to it. The series reflects William’s love
of his native country.

The riverbed in ‘Earth Images’ is painted from and aerial perspective and shows the winding
of the river that snakes its way through the land. This winding of the river forms the origin of
many Aboriginal stories. In the Australian bush the riverbed is often a rich source of food and
water and traditionally Aboriginal people relied heavily on the presence of the river as they
travelled across the land.

In ‘Earth Images’ William depicts campsites with concentric circles. In traditional society,
Aboriginal people were nomadic and would live in one location for as long as the environment
would sustain them. The campsite represents a meeting of the community and is often
represented in Aboriginal art. 

Walangkura Napanangka

Walangkura Napanangka was born around 1946 at Tjiturulnga, west of Kintore. She is the
daughter of Inyuwa Nampitjinpa and Tutuma Tjapangati and sister of the Pirrmangka
Napanangka. Her family was amongst a group of Pintupi people who made their way to the
Ikuntji settlement (Haasts Bluff) in 1956. They walked hundreds of kilometres from west of the
salt lake of Lake MacDonald to access the supplies of food and water on offer at the
settlement. The family returned to their homelands community of Kintore in 1981.

Walangkura began her career through participating in the historic Kintore-Haasts Bluff
collaborative canvas project ‘Minyma Tjukurrpa’ in 1995, and subsequently began painting for
Papunya Tula Artists in 1996. She now lives at Kiwirrkura with her husband and fellow artist
Johnny Yungut Tjupurrula.

Walangkura has exhibited extensively, including in Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius at the
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2000), in Dreamscapes – Contemporary Desert Art,
Mostings Hus, Frederiksberg, Denmark (2001), and in Mythology and Reality at the S.H Ervin
Gallery, Sydney (2003). Walangkura had her first solo exhibition at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi in
2003. Her work is represented in collections including the Art Gallery of New South Wales
and the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra 

Violet Petyarre

Violet Petyarre is one of the seven famous Petyarre artists including Kathleen, Gloria and Ada
and was born at Atnangkere, on the western boundary of Utopia Station, 170 miles north-east
of Alice Springs circa 1945.

Like the majority of her sisters, Violet was a participant in the batik project A Picture Story that
established the women artists of Utopia in the late eighties. Her batik work is represented in
the Holmes a Court collection. Like the other artists who took part in the project
(approximately ninety women and one man) Violet has left this medium behind and now
executes bold and bright works on canvas that depict the body paint designs associated with
her Dreaming stories. Violet’s work has a very contemporary and textural aesthetic which sets
her apart from other Anmatyerre artists from Utopia.

Collections:

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
The Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Perth, Australia
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
The Kelton Foundation, Los Angeles, USA 

Tanya Price Nangala

Tanya is a younger Anmatyerre artist (born circa 1976) who is becoming renowned for her
intricate dotting style that presents an aerial perspective of her country in the Utopia
Homelands of Central Australia. Her paintings relate in particular to Women's Ceremonies
and the special areas of country where they are held. Tanya uses bright colours and intricate
patterns composed of minute dots and icons in her artwork. 

Sylvana Marks

Sylvana is a younger artist (born in 1965) and a Luritja woman, (the Luritja are traditional
owners of the Kings Canyon area). She lives at Mount Liebig community approximately
250km North of Kings Canyon. Sylvana cares for up to five children and paints infrequently,
her works are truly a labour of love, being executed with a single piece of stick the size of a
matchstick. She paints with the canvas laid out on the ground and can spend weeks
completing a larger piece.

Like the Native Americans, Aboriginal people have animal totems that are assigned to them at
birth. With Aboriginal women, their totemic connections extend into the plant kingdom.
Sylvana's plant totem is the bush berry, an edible native berry that changes from yellow to
black as it ripens. It is therefore Sylvana's duty to pay homage to the bush berry during
ceremonies in the form of song and dance. By painting in a permanent medium, Sylvana is
extending her role of honouring this native food which has sustained the Luritja people for
countless years. Her paintings are basically aerial perspectives or maps of the land that she is
connected to and the berries that grow there. The tempo and flow of her dotting will often
mirror a ceremonial song that she hums whilst painting 

Stephen Martin

Stephen is the son of the well known Glory Ngale and brother to Anna Petyarre.

His work is often very experimental and the results are often striking depictions of the Emu or Dingo, and waterhole dreamings. He is a young man who gains a lot of satisfaction from expressing himself and his culture through painting.

Sarrita King

Sarrita King Date of Birth 1988 NT

Sarrita’s paintings have an extraordinary discipline behind them, no doubt this comes from in
part her famous father William King, sadly deceased.

She belongs to the Gurindji Tribe located near Katherine in the Northern Territory. Her
paintings are inspired by the land and the environment where she grew up.

Sarrita is not only an accomplished artist she is also a recognised sportswomen being
accepted into The Australian Institute of Sport in Adelaide.

She has a genuine connection to the land, as a child she was fascinated by the monsoonal
storms found in the Top End of Australia. She would find new designs and colours each time
these wet season storms occurred.

The very fine and intricate dotwork all with a short and precise flick up or down at the end of
her application creates an illusion of movement and along with the acrylic paint she uses, her
pictures give off a warm shimmering contemporary appeal.

Sarah Morton

Sarah Morton Kngwarreye is an Alyawarre woman from Ngkwarlerlaneme Community in the
Utopia Homelands, Central Australia. Her career as an artist began by participating in the
CAAMA batik project of the late eighties and one of her works on silk forms part of the
Holmes a Court Collection of Utopian batiks
Sarah lives a semi traditional lifestyle dividing her time between Alice Springs and the remote
outpost of Ngkwarlerlaneme. She is renowned for her precise and intricate dotting style and
her recent works on canvas invariably convey something of the story of her totemic animal the
Honey Ant (Yerramp) which is prized for its edible liquid filled abdomen.

Collections:

Museum of Victoria, Melbourne
The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
The Holmes á Court Collection, Perth

Sammy Petyarre

Sammy Petyarre is from the Utopia Homelands, 200 km North of Alice Springs.

His art is a very good representation of fine and deliberate dot work which comes to represent the country and the stories of his Dreamings within it. He uses bold icons to depict his dreaming with a strong and constant use of colour. His daughter, Janet Golder carries on this similar precision in her dot work while depicting the country.

Ruby Ross Napaltjarri

Born circa 1945, Ruby is a Warlpiri woman who was born at Yuendumu in the Western
Desert of Central Australia. She now lives with her husband Paddy at Ti Tree, 200km North
of Alice Springs. Ruby is the younger sister of Helen White Napaltjarri who is also an artist
and paints using the same technique of very fine individual dots in their paintings.

When questioned about the context of her paintings, Ruby seems reluctant to give too much
away, which is not uncommon for many of the artists we represent. When asked who taught
her to paint like this she responded “it was my singing, my song”. Quite often the information
or story contained within a painting is for sharing with initiates only. In traditional aboriginal
culture, each person passes through a series of initiations in their lifetime, with each stage
meaning greater access to knowledge of dreaming stories and ceremonies. Hence, even an
uninitiated aboriginal person will not be told ‘the full story’. What we do know about Ruby’s
work is that the consistent theme is ‘Meeting Place’ and presents an aerial depiction of
waking paths or ‘tracking lines’ through her country.

One can assume that these paths are not necessarily physical in nature but denote a
dreaming song or ‘story’ that runs through the land and acts as a boundary and or walking
route that is recognised as a significant part of the landscape from which indigenous people
have subsisted for countless years. Where these lines intersect is called ‘Meeting Place’ in
English and may represent a special place or a sacred site reserved for Ceremony. 

Ruby Morton Kngwarreye

Ruby was born in 1965 ca and she lives in the Utopia Region in the Northern Territory, she is
a Alyawarr language speaker.

Ruby is renowned for the intricate style and tiny dot work in her paintings. Her pieces are
often representative of her country, including wildflowers, seeds, bush plum and honey ants,
all of which can be found at her home at Kurrajong Bore in the Utopia Homelands. 

Ruby Daniels

Ruby is an emerging Pintupi artist from the Kintore Region now living in Areyonga, born c,
1960.
She is a daughter of the well known artist Linda Syddick Napaltjarri.
Her dreamings include Bush potato and The Seven Sisters. Ruby often paints in a narrative
style that passes on the dreaming stories of her mother's country.

Her unique style blends traditional dot work with more contemporary patterning. 

Rosie Pula

Born circa 1945 in Central Australia, Rosie is an Anmatyerre woman who lives at Mosquito
Bore in the Utopia Homelands. As an artist, she emerged from the CAAMA batik program of
the early eighties in Utopia, where she travelled together with other artists to Samoa to learn
Batik techniques. Rosie has since developed into a known artist using acrylic paints on
canvas. Her style consists of very fine dot work often combined with Awelye (body paint
design) which depicts both the country, the bush plum and the bush plum seeds fallen to the
ground. Her work celebrates sacred women's ceremonies and this native food source which is
her plant totem. Her unique motif that she incorporates into most of her recent paintings has a
dual perspective. It is an aerial view of the land incorporating a walking track and a ‘meeting
place’ or ceremonial site. From a vertical perspective however, the design resembles the
leaves and fruit of the bush plum plant itself. 

Ronnie Tjampitjinpa

Born circa 1940 at Tjiturrunya, west of Muyinga over the Western Australian border, Pintupi
artist Ronnie Tjampitjinpa's family moved around the country and the area around Wilkinkarra
in the Northern Territory. Ronnie was initiated at Winparrku in the Northern Territory. His
family walked to Haasts Bluff in December 1956 from the Dovers Hills/Yumari area due to the
severe drought affecting the region. Here Ronnie began working as a stockman before the
family moved to the newly established settlement at Papunya, where he worked at fencing
cattle yards.

One of the youngest artists, Ronnie began painting in 1971 with the founding group of
Papunya painters, and became an important influence on the outstation movement. Ronnie
moved to Walungurru with his family after it was established in 1981. In the early 1980's,
Ronnie painted intermittently for Papunya Tula Artists; however, by the late 1980's and early
1990's, his distinctive graphic style attracted considerable attention. In these later works, his
delicate, dotted Tingari designs have been transformed into bands of colour to dazzling
optical effect. He has exhibited widely both within Australia and overseas. Ronnie won the
Alice Prize in September 1988 with the painting Tingari Story at Nwirmiminya, 1988. He has
held several solo exhibitions, beginning with an exhibition at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi in 1989.
Exhibitions include Australian Perspecta 1993, 'Dreamings of the Desert' (1996) and 'Twentyfive Years and Beyond' (1999).

Source: Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of NSW, 2000 

Paul Janima Purvis

Paul Janima Purvis is from Wilora in the North eastern corner of the Utopia Homelands.

His paintings often depict the Dingo Dreaming and stories directly related to his country. He uses icons to depict place and people as they live and move in their country. His work is both detailed and displays a good use of dot work and Aboriginal motifs.

Patsy Ross

Patsy has been painting in Ti Tree for Red Sand Art Gallery for a number of years now. She
is in her late twenties and is already a well sought after artist.
She has had her work exhibited at Flinders University, Adelaide in which her work sold out the
first evening.
Her paintings signify the journey across the land into its centre. They are titled ‘Meeting Place’
and the tracks bring the people together.
In her work the dots represent both the variations in the terrain and people themselves. 

Patsy long

Patsy moved from batik work to painting with acrylic in the late 1980's.
She is an Anmatyerre speaker from Boundary Bore. Having changed her focus from Bush
Tucker to Bush Medicine, her style has received much attention. Her ability to ghost tracks
depicting where bush medicine can be found within her country is quite unique and very
effective.

Collections of her work include:

The Anthropology Museum St Lucia - USA
Kelton Foundation - USA
National Gallery of Canberra
Robert Holmes a Court-Collection - Perth 

Paddy Fordham Wainburrang

Paddy was born ca 1932 at Beswick in the Northern Territory.
Paddy is of the Rembarrnga language group from Central Arnhem Land. He was taught to
paint by his father although his style incorporates the Balangiarngalain spirit figures and is
quite different. His painting has advanced from that of ochre on bark to acrylic on canvas
where his freedom of colour and medium is explored in size and quality.


His work has been a part of endless exhibitions including: The second1985, fourth1987, sixth
1989, eighth 1991, ninth 1992/3, tenth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition in the
Museum and Art Gallery of the NT., 'Spirit in Land' from Arnhem Land - 1990 National Gallery
of Victoria, 'Tagari Lia: My Family' 1990 travelled to Glasgow, Harvard University, University
of Minnesota, Lake Oswego Centre for the Arts USA, 'Flash Pictures' 1991 National Gallery of
Australia, 'New Tracks Old Land' 1992/93 toured USA, Australian Heritage Commission
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibition 1993 Parliament House,
'ARATJARA: Art of the First Australians' 1993/94 touring Europe. Museum of Contemporary
Art, Sydney 1994 and National Gallery of Melbourne 1994.


Collectors include: National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, National
Maritime Museum, Berndt Museum of Anthropology, Flinders University Art Museum,
Museum of Victoria and The Holmes Court Collection - Perth.
Work has been comissioned by Katherine Art Gallery Feb. 2003. 

Nora Kemarre

In her paintings Nora shows us the Bush Medicine Dreaming. The Bush Medicine Plant is an
Australian native that grows wild in Central Australia. Women go to different places around
Utopia to collect leaves from these plants. Back at the camp the leaves are boiled to extract
resin. Kangaroo fat is mixed into the resin, creating a paste that can be stored for a long time
in bush conditions. This medicine is used to heal cuts, wounds, bites, rashes and also acts as
an insect repellent.

By painting about "Bush Medicine" Nora is paying homage to the spirit of the medicine plant
in the hope that it will regenerate, enabling the people to continue to benefit from its healing
properties.

The bush medicine ceremony is performed at different times of the year. In preparation for the
ceremony the women paint their bodies with special markings for that particular ceremony.
Ochre and Spinifex ashes are mixed with Kangaroo or Emu fat to make the body-paint. Body-
painting ranges from simply smearing clay across the face, to intricate full body patterning.
Ceremonies always involve song, dance and body decoration, the ownership, management
and performance of the ceremony is dependent upon knowledge, status and initiation level of
the participants. 

Nanyuma Napangardi

Nanyuma (pronounced nan-yoo-ma) is a Pintupi woman from Kiwirrkurra in the Western
Desert of Central Australia, she was born in the bush circa 1940.
Nanyuma was taken into the west camp at Papunya by one of the Northern Territory Welfare
patrols, that were sent out from Darwin in the early 1960’s to round up the remaining nomadic
Pintupi people. When Kintore (Walangurru) was established in 1982, she chose to move back
there to live with other Pintupi people living at Papunya.
It is believed that Nanyuma began painting in 1994 and she has had a successful career as
an artist over the last decade, including participating in the joint Kiwirrkurra women’s painting
that featured in the Papunya Tula –Genesis and Genius exhibition at the Art Gallery of New
South Wales in 2000. 

Nancy Petyarre

Nancy is well known for her Mountain Devil Lizard paintings with the linear style; along with
her sister Gloria she is responsible for making it famous.
An Anmatyerre speaker, she lives in Boundary Bore, Utopia. Her children include Helen
Kunoth, Christopher Kunoth and Lucy Kunoth who all paint.
Nancy is well known also for her wood carving and woodblock work.
She has been a part of many private exhibitions from as early as 1995.

Nancy Nungurrayi

Nancy Nungurrayi is one of the leading artist's to come from Kintore.
Her work often depicts women dancing in ceremony amidst sand hills.
Her paintings use bold strokes combined with a good use of colour and technique which
engages the onlooker in her dreaming.
She has been a part of many private exhibitions throughout Australia. 

Naata Nungurrayi

It is believed that Naata first began painting on canvas in 1994 when she was a participant in
the Kintore-Haasts Bluff collaborative canvas project and since that time has achieved a great
many career milestones including having her art work represented on an Australia Post stamp
and receiving a special commendation for her 2002 entry in the Telstra Indigenous Art Award.
Her work was included in the 2000 Exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales 'Genesis
and Genius'.
She is an eccentric Pintupi artist and the sister of George Tjungurrayi and Nancy Ross
Nungurrayi. Her recent works have shifted from specific Women's Ceremonies to broader
perspectives of the land that she belongs to (Marrapinti). Her paintings are highly sought after
and she was listed in the January 2004 edition of Australian Art Collector as one of Australia’s
fifty most collectable artists. Naata lives at Walungurru in Kintore 530km west of Alice Springs
and is rarely apart from her sister Nancy who often paints with her. 

Mitjili Napurrula

Mitjili is a Pintupi woman from the Haasts Bluff region, located 200km west of Alice Springs in
the Northern Territory. She was born around 1945 and is half sister to Turkey Tolson, another
well-known Pintupi painter. She married Long Tom Tjapanangka at Papunya in the 1960s and
they later lived at Haasts Bluff. She now lives at Mt Liebig with Long Tom.

Mitjili began painting at the Ikuntji Women's Centre in 1992. She paints her father's country
called Uwalki which lies in the Gibson Desert near the Kintore Ranges, west of Haasts Bluff.
This country is characterised by red sandhills, bushes and trees including the beautiful desert
oaks. Her early paintings were not entirely successful, being seen as rather similar to the
Papunya style paintings which she saw as a young woman.

Since working with the Ikuntji artists she has developed a very strong and distinctive personal
style based on her paintings of trees and country at Uwalki. She was taught some of her key
imagery by her mother drawing patterns in the sand. She says: "My mother taught me my
father's Tjukurrpa; that's what I'm painting on the canvas".

This style has gained her a strong following within Australia and internationally with regular
sellout exhibitions. Her paintings are held by numerous public and private collections. 

Minnie Pwerle

Minnie passed away in March 2006. Her age at passing seems to be indeterminable, but her
birth year is most widely quoted as 1910, although it appears that she was actually born
around 1924 (according to arts writer Susan McCulloch in a 2003 Weekend Australian
article). She enjoyed a seven year career as an artist and in that brief span rose from
obscurity to being one of the most celebrated and sought after Anmatyerre artists from Utopia
since her friend, the late Emily Kngwarreye.

Minnie’s bold linear depictions of ceremonial body paint designs (awelye) associated with the
Bush Melon plant are raw, fresh and vibrant. Her uninhibited approach to the application of
bright acrylic paint to canvas and linen instantly caught the attention of art lovers and
collectors. Her first solo exhibition (at Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne) in 2000 was a sellout
and she was to contribute to solo and group exhibitions at prestigious Australian galleries
every year after until her death.

The strength and intensity of her earlier works has been borne out by spectacular results at
auction for the resale of her paintings. She will be remembered hereafter as a petite, demure
lady and an exceptional talent who shone brightly as an artist in her twilight years and left a
legacy of beauty in her wake. When asked why Minnie only took up painting so late in her life,
her daughter Barbara Weir responds, “She was waiting for someone to ask her”. 

Maureen Purvis

Maureen Purvis Kngwarreye is an Anmatyerre woman from Boundary Bore in the Utopia
Homelands, Central Australia. She is a younger artist (born in 1970) who enjoys using bold
and bright colours when depicting her plant totem, the Bush Yam. Maureen is the daughter of
Greeny Purvis Petyarre who is a senior artist and law man at Utopia, Greeny also paints Bush
Yam Dreamings but in a very different style to his daughters.

Maureen is from a family of artists, her sisters Judy and Jennifer also paint and her aunt is
Evelyn Pultara, winner of the Telstra General Painting award 2005. Maureen’s work has
instant appeal and she consistently experiments with technique whilst maintaining a soft yet
colourful palette. It will be interesting to watch how her career as an artist progresses with
further exposure nationally and overseas. 

Maureen Hudson

Maureen Hudson Nampijinpa is a Warlpiri artist who was born in the Central Australian ‘bush’
in 1959 to an Anmatyerre mother and Warlpiri father. She was schooled at Yuendumu
Ccommunity and later worked as a teacher’s aide back at the region of her birth near
Yuelumu Community on Mount Allan cattle station.
Maureen is recognised as an extremely innovative artist who is constantly experimenting with
design and technique.

Selected exhibitions:

1992 ‘Central Australian Art’, The Art Dock, Noumea
1992 ‘Sand Paintings of the Central Desert’, Centre for Aboriginal Art, Alice Springs
1993 ‘Commitments’ Museum of Modern Art, Brisbane
1994 ‘Dreamings’ (with Clifford Possum), Tribal Art Gallery, Melbourne
1995 ‘Dreamings of the Desert’ Uluru Gallery, Ayers Rock
1997 ‘Desert Dreams’ Tandanya, Adelaide
1997 ‘Eunice Napangardi & Maureen Hudson’ Jeffrey Moose Gallery, Seattle, USA
1997 ‘Women Dreaming’ Gallery 47, London
1998 ‘Songlines’ Boulder, Colorado USA
1999 - 2004 ‘Artist in residence’ Mulgara Gallery, Ayers Rock Resort
2002 ‘Maureen Nampijinpa’ Tineriba Gallery, Hahndorf SA
2005 ‘Works by Maureen Nampijinpa’ Ladner & Fell Gallery, Melbourne
2005 ‘Maureen Nampijinpa Hudson’ Japingka Gallery, Fremantle 

Margaret Turner Petyarre

Like many of the women artists from Utopia, Margaret’s career began with the production of
batik works on silk. Subsequently, she is one of eighty eight artists whose work is represented
in the book “A Picture Story – The Robert Holmes a Court Collection” which documents a
collection of works completed in 1988.

Margaret lives at New Store Community in the Utopia Homelands and visits Alice Springs
frequently, her language group is Alyawarre.
She was born circa 1950 and is an innovative artist who has painted in many styles since her
progression to acrylic on canvas. Her main theme is the Bush Orange (one of her plant
totems) but she also paints Bush Melon, Awelye (ceremonial body paint) and Budgerigar
Dreamings.
She has experimented with many different techniques and styles that bring richness to her
work and set her apart as an artist. 

Makinti Napanangka

Makinti Napanangka is one of the most senior and respected artists from the Kintore
community located near the boundary between the Northern Territory and Western Australia
in the western desert. Makinti is a Pintupi speaker who was born sometime around 1930 in
the Lake MacDonald region. She and her family walked in to Haasts Bluff before the Papunya
Community was established. She began painting in acrylic during the mid 1990s as a member
of the Haasts Bluff-Kintore painting project conducted at Kintore by Marina Strocchi, the art
coordinator at Haasts Bluff. She quickly developed her own distinctive style and has been
painting regularly since 1996.

Her paintings typically consist of a complex pattern of pale lines over an orange or ochrecoloured background. This is then set off with mauve or bright yellow highlights. Makinti's
work incorporates designs associated with the travels of the Kungka Kutjarra (two women).
The wandering lines that so often feature in her paintings depict the swirling hair string skirts
worn by women during ceremonies associated with certain sites. While the patterning refers
to the skirts, the flowing rhythms of the lines hint at the songs and dances of the Pintupi
women's ceremonies. While most of Makinti's imagery is related to the Kungka Kutjarra, it can
also refer to the Kuningka - the western quoll - which is represented by circles.

Makinti has participated in numerous group exhibitions and has had three solo shows: at
Utopia Art in Sydney in 2000 and 2001 and at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne in 2002. Her
work is represented in many major public and private collections in both Australia and
overseas.Utopia Art's director, Chris Hodges, says Makinti Napanangka is the central desert's
"best painter since Emily [Kngwarreye]". Hodges believes the artist has no living match in her
painterly freedom, and her fearless blend of naive and sophisticated elements. She was rated
in the March 2003 issue of "Australian Art Collector" magazine as one of the 50 most
collectable artists in Australia. 

Maggie Williams Napaltjarri

Mggie was born Circa 1950, she is a Warlpiri speaker and lives at Willowra Community in the
Northern Territory.

When questioned about the context of her paintings, Maggie seems reluctant to give too much
away, which is not uncommon for many of the artists we represent. Quite often the information
or story contained within a painting is for sharing with initiates only. In traditional aboriginal
culture, each person passes through a series of initiations in their lifetime, with each stage
meaning greater access to knowledge of dreaming stories and ceremonies. Hence, even an
uninitiated aboriginal person will not be told ‘the full story’. What we do know about Maggie’s
work is that the consistent theme is ‘Meeting Place’ and presents an aerial depiction of waking
paths or ‘tracking lines’ through the country around Willowra.

One can assume that these paths are not necessarily physical in nature but denote a
dreaming song or ‘story’ that runs through the land and acts as a boundary and or walking
route that is recognised as a significant part of the landscape from which indigenous people
have subsisted for countless years. Where these lines intersect is called ‘Meeting Place’ in
English and may represent a special place or a sacred site.