Karntakurlangu Jukurrpa 2 (Women’s Dreaming 2) by Dorothy Napangardi etching

This limited edition etching was created with Crown Point Press, the esteemed San Francisco based printing house, by Dorothy Napangardi on this important subject of women’s connection to the country of Mina Mina.

Catalogue No: DN-12, Date: 2004, Limited Edition: 50, Image Size: 46 x 59 cm, Paper size: 63 x 79 cm, Medium: Color soap ground and sugar lift aquatints, Paper: Somerset Satin White, Produced at: Crown Point Press, San Francisco, Printer: Crown Point Press, Publisher: Crown Point Press

Digging Sticks are very important for women as they are used as a utilitarian object when hunting and collecting food but also in ceremonies that correspond to abundance and fertility. They are often placed in a hole in the centre of the sand paintings on the ceremonial ground and painted with ochre.

In the Dreaming it is the songs that Napangardi/Napanangka women sang that caused the Desert Oak trees to come out of the ground, creating the first digging sticks at the site of Mina Mina in the western desert.