Tjunkiya Napaltjarri

Pintupi Language Group

Untitled

91 x 91cms

Ref No: TN0310258

This painting depicts designs associated with the rockhole site of Umari, situated in sandhill country, east of Mt. Webb in Western Australia.

A number of women gathered at the site to perform ceremonies, one of the Nangala kinship subsection and the others of the Napaltjarri kinship subsection later travelled towards the east. One of the mythologies associated with the area concerns a relationship between a man of the Tjakamarra kinship subsection and a woman of the Nangala kinship subsection. This is a son-in-law/mother-in-law relationship, which is very taboo in Aboriginal culture.

Tjunkiya was born at Rapalangya, north-west of the Kintore Community, circa 1930. She is the third wife of Turkey Tolson's father and together they moved to Haasts Bluff and then to the Community of Papunya when it was established. Tjunkiya participated in the Kintore/Haasts Bluff joint project, which was the beginning of her career. In 1999 she contributed to the Kintore womens' painting as part of the Western Desert Dialysis Appeal. Tjunkiya passed away in 2009.