Margaret Yinjuru Bumblebee

Ngarti Language Group

“Winingiyn”

80 x 80cm

Acrylic on canvas

Ref No: BA107904

SOLD

This country is called Winingiyn and is located east of Tanimi Downs.The painting depicts the Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) story for Margaret’s grandfather’s country. In the Tjukurrpa two snakes travelled through Jarluwangu, a cave depicted as the single arch shape. The longer snake was a king brown and his poison made him very powerful. When they went inside the cave he was able to rise up and look while the other snake needed to be lifted up. They saw that all the people were sleeping after dancing and singing all night for ceremony. The two ancestral men/snakes woke up all the people. They got up and turned into other snakes: carpet snakes and water snakes and other types. The winding lines show the tracks of the snakes as they continue their journey. The circles are soakwaters and the footprints of bush turkeys are also shown.

Margaret Napurrula Anjulu (Yinjuru) is a stately Ngardi/Walpiri woman born circa 1945. She was born into a nomadic existence in the Tanami Desert. Her family group, compromising only her mother, father and herself, walked into Laws Creek Station when Margaret was still a young girl. Here they tended to goats and pigs. The family acquired donkeys and camels for transporting drums of tea and flour to various outstations. This led Margaret to working in the kitchen at various stations between Balgo and Lajamanu.

Margaret only moved to Balgo Mission when her children were no longer in danger of being put into dormitories. Before that her children went to school for short periods of time in Lajamanu. Margaret has worked for the church at Balgo and commenced painting with one of the early art coordinators. Margaret paints vibrant dynamic paintings rich with stories from the Tjukurrpa (Dreaming). A senior law woman she holds responsibilities for sand painting rituals, ceremonial dances, song cycles and bush medicine knowledge.