Josephine Nangala

Pintupi Language Group

Untitled

46 x 38 cm

Ref No: JN1605099

This painting depicts designs associated with the rockhole site of Marrapinti, west of the Pollock Hills in Western Australia. A group of ancestral women once camped at this rockhole before continuing their travels further east, passing through Wala Wala, Kiwirrkura and Ngaminya. While at the site the women made nose bones, also known as marrapinti, which are worn through a hole made in the nose web. During their journey they ate the edible berries and seeds including the bush tomato and desert raisins. These berries can be eaten straight from the bush but are sometimes ground into a paste and cooked in coals to form a type of damper.

Josephine was born circa 1950 and grew up in country north of Jupiter Well in Western Australia. her first contact with European people was with cattlemen in the same area, who provided her family with meat. Josephine lived in Balgo before moving to Kiwirrkura with her husband Charlie Wallabi Tjungurrayi.
In 1999 Josephine contributed to the Kiwirrkura women's painting as part of the Western Desert Dialysis Appeal.