District 9710

The Rotary Club of Woden

The Rotary Western Desert Project (RAWCS)

A Rotary Australia World Community Service Project
Project No 30/2007-08

To show their appreciation of Woden's initiative in starting the Western Desert Project, the WDNWPT has donated two paintings by local artists to the club. The Centralian and Western Desert Aboriginals are unique in their representation of mythological Dreamtime beings and events in ground painting and body designs. The paintings are examples of this ancient yet living tradition depicted in modern media.

Paintings by Josephine Nangala and Yukultji Napangati
- held by Marlene and Sarah from Kintore.
These images and text shall not be reproduced in whole or in part
without permission of the artist and Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd

The artist of the painting on the left is Josephine Nangala from the Pintupi language group. She was born c.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 the Kiwirrkura community with her husband Charlie Wallabi Tjungurrayi. In 1999 Josephine contributed to the Kiwirrkura womens’ painting as part of the Western Desert Dialysis Appeal. Her exhibitions have included ones in Alice Springs, Sydney, Darwin, Brisbane, Canberra and Poznan, Poland. Some of her work is in the Art Gallery of NSW. This artwork, painted at Kiwirrkura in 2004, depicts designs associated with the rockhole site of Nyilla, north of Jupiter Well. The circles in the painting represent a number of rockholes in the area at this site. During mythological times a group of women gathered at this site to perform the dances and sing the songs associated with the area. The women later continued their travels further east passing through the Kiwirrkura area.

The artist of the painting on the right is Yukultji Napangati from the Pintupi language group. She came to Kiwirrkura in 1984. Prior to this she had been living with eight others of her immediate family in an area of country to the west of Lake Mackay. It was estimated that at the time her family came in to Kiwirrkura that she was 14 years old. In 1999 Yukultji contributed to the Kiwirrkura womens’ painting as part of the Western Desert Dialysis Appeal. In 2005 she was selected as one of nine artists to exhibit at the prestigious Primavera show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. This is an invitational non-selling exhibition for young Australian artists under the age of 35 years. She has exhibited in most states and territories of Australia and in France and the USA. Some of her work is in the Art Gallery of NSW, Artbank and the National Gallery of Australia. This artwork, painted at Kiwirrkura in 2003, depicts the rockhole and soakage water site of Marrapinti, west of the Kiwirrkura Community in Western Australia. The lines represent the sandhills and rocky outcrops surrounding the area. In mythological times, a group of women of the Nangala and Napangati kinship subsections camped at this site during their travels further east. While at the site the women made the nose bones, also known as marrapinti, which are worn through a hole made in the nose web.