Salt on Mina Mina (2009) by Dorothy Napangardi 48x68cm Cat 13941DN

Using a myriad of white dots set against a midnight blue background Dorothy depicts the crustations of salt stretching infinitely onward, etched by the tracks of the women as their paths stretch on, crossing and merging, telling their stories.

This painting depicts a major women’s ceremonial site known as Mina Mina, the artist’s custodial country, located near Lake Mackay in the Tanami Desert, north of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory.

Topographically, the sacred site of Mina Mina is made up of two enormous soakages areas that, rarely filled with water, exist as clay pans. As water soaks into the ground, small areas of earth dry out and left at the edges, becoming delineated by salt.

During the Jukurrpa Ancestral women of the Napangardi and Napanangka sub-section groups (aunt / niece relationship, in which knowledge is passed from one to the other) gathered to collect ceremonial digging sticks ( karlangu ) that had emerged from the ground. They then proceeded east, performing rituals of song and dance, to the place known as Jankinyi. A large belt of trees ( Allocasuarina decaisneana ) now stand where these digging sticks once were.