Minyma Tingari, 2000 by Barbara Napangarti Reid 91x91cm Cat 4479BR

This painting represents aspects of the secret and sacred ‘ Tingari Cycle ’, a spiritual amalgam that incorporates story, song and ceremony. It narrates the stories of the Tingari ancestors who traveled vast stretches of the country performing rituals, which in turn brought into being the land formations of particular sites.

In this work Barbara depicts the Tingari women with their digging sticks– represented by the U shapes. The wider U shapes are the windbreaks the women use, and around them are the features of this particular landscape, pintalypa , a native bush-apple, represented by the ochre oval shapes.

The iconography used can also be read as representative of the body paint worn by Ngaanyatjarra women whilst performing these Tingari ceremonies: vitally important aspects of the continuity of cultural practice, in that they form a major part of the investiture teachings of the post-initiatory, as well as providing explanations for contemporary customs.