Mina Mina Jukurrpa (Mina Mina Dreaming) - Original Art

This is an original artwork by artist - Margaret Napangardi Lewis, a member of the Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation.

Additional canvas around the edge of the painting allows for stretching.

Artwork measures - 61 x 61 cm

This original artwork is unframed and shipped rolled up to your door! We have very competitive framing options on our site - see tab below to get a free online quote. 

A stamped certificate of authenticity is supplied by Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation with this artwork.

Warlukurlangu Artists is famous for its gloriously colourful acrylic paintings and limited edition prints. The Aboriginal art centre has a national and international profile and its art has been featured in hundreds of exhibitions and publications in Australia and around the world. Warlukurlangu means ‘belonging to fire’ in the local language, Warlpiri, and is named for a fire dreaming site west of Yuendumu.

Established in 1985 Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation is a not-for-profit organisation that is 100% Aboriginal-owned by its artists from the remote desert communities of Yuendumu and Nyirripi in Central Australia. Proceeds from the sale of all art go directly back to the artists and their community projects. Warlukurlangu Artists is supported by funding from the Australian Government through the Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support.

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ARTWORK STORY:

Mina Mina is an extremely important ceremonial site for Napangardi and
Napanangka women that is located approximately 600kms west of
Yuendumu, just east of Lake Mackay and the WA border. The area has
a ‘marluri’ (salt lake or claypan) that is usually dry, without water. There
are also a number of ‘mulju’ (soakages), sandhills, and a large stand of
‘kurrkara’ (desert oaks [Allocasuarina decaisneana]). The Mina Mina
Jukurrpa is an important source of Warlpiri ritual knowledge and social
organization, particularly relating to the different roles performed by men
and women.

The ‘kirda’ (owners) of this country are Napangardi/Napanangka women
and Japangardi/Japanangka men, who can depict portions of the Mina
Mina Jukurrpa in their paintings. There are a number of different
components of the Mina Mina Jukurrpa; artists usually choose to depict
one particular aspect. These can include ‘karnta’ (women), ‘karlangu’
(digging sticks), ‘majardi’ (hairstring skirts/tassels), ‘ngalyipi’ (snakevine
[Tinospora smilacina]), ‘jintiparnta’ (desert truffle [Elderia arenivaga]),
and ‘kurrkara’ (desert oak [Allocasuarina decaisneana]).

The Mina Mina Jukurrpa tells the story of a group of ancestral ‘karnta’
(women) who traveled from west to east. In the Dreamtime, these
ancestral women danced at Mina Mina and ‘karlangu’ (digging sticks)
rose up out of the ground. They collected these digging sticks and
started travelling to the east. They carried their digging sticks over their
shoulders and they were adorned with ‘majardi’ (hairstring belts), white
feathers, and necklaces made from ‘yinirnti’ (bean tree [Erythrina
vespertilio]) seeds. They continuously anointed themselves with ‘minyira’
(shiny fat) to increase their ritual powers as they went along. As the
women travelled, they were followed by a ‘yinkardakurdaku’ (spotted
nightjar [Eurostopodus argus]) from the Jakamarra subsection. The bird
would call out and then hide in the bushes behind them as they
travelled.

When the women danced at Mina Mina, they created a large dust cloud
that swept up the ‘walyankarna’ (snake ancestors). The ‘walyankarna’
had previously transformed themselves from witchetty grubs into snakes
at Kunajarrayi (Mount Nicker, 200km southwest of Yuendumu), and they
had stopped at Mina Mina to watch the women dance. This dust cloud
blew the ‘walyankarna’ further north to Yaturluyaturlu (near the Granites
gold mine). In this way, the ‘karnta Jukurrpa’ (women’s Dreaming) and
‘ngarlkirdi Jukurrpa’ (witchetty grub Dreaming) intersect. This allowed the
ancestral women to observe the witchetty grubs and learn how to best
locate and cook them, which are skills that Warlpiri women still use
today.

The women went east from Mina Mina, dancing, digging for bush tucker,
and creating many places as they went. As they went east, they passed
through Kimayi (a stand of ‘kurrkara’ (desert oak)). They passed through
sandhill country where the ‘yarla’ (bush potato or ‘big yam’ [Ipomea
costata]) ancestors from Yumurrpa and the ‘ngarlajiyi’ (pencil yam or
‘small yam’ [Vigna lanceolata]) ancestors from Yumurrpa were engaged
in a huge battle over women. This battle is also a very important Warlpiri
Jukurrpa narrative. The women went on to Janyinki and stopped at
Wakakurrku (Mala Bore), where they stuck their digging sticks in the
ground. These digging sticks turned into mulga trees, which still grow at
Wakakurrku today. The women then went on to Lungkardajarra (Rich 
Bore), where they looked back towards their country in the west and
started to feel homesick for what they’d left behind.

The women split up at Lungkardajarra. Some of them travelled
eastwards to Yarungkanyi (Mount Doreen), and kept going east. They
passed through Coniston in Anmatyerre country, and then went on to
Alcoota and Aileron and beyond. The other group of women travelled
travelled northwards from Lungkardajarra to Karntakurlangu. These
women stopped at Karntakurlangu to dig for ‘wardapi’ (sand
monitor/goanna [Varanus gouldii]) and ‘jintiparnta’ (desert truffle) before
going further north. Both groups eventually got so homesick for their
desert oak country in the west that they went all the way back to Mina
Mina, where they stayed for good.

This Jukurrpa contains important information about the different roles
that men and women play in Warlpiri culture, particularly in the context of
ritual performance. It alludes to an earlier time in which their ritual and
social roles were reversed, in which women controlled the sacred
objects and weapons that are now exclusively “owned” by men.
In contemporary Warlpiri paintings, traditional iconography can be used
to represent the Jukurrpa, particular sites, and other elements. In
paintings of the Mina Mina Jukurrpa, sinuous lines are often used to
represent ‘ngalyipi’ (snakevine). Circles and roundels can represent the
‘jintiparnta’ (desert truffle) that the women collected as they travelled,
and straight lines are used to represent the ‘karlangu’ (digging sticks).
‘Majardi’ (hairstring skirts) are represented by wavy lines suspended
from a single curved line.