Sandhills of Mina Mina (2008) by Dorothy Napangardi, 122x91cm Cat 13704DN

The first image is a closeup of the painting. Please click through the images to see the full painting and artist with work.

In this painting, which has beautiful movement, Dorothy has used purple and yellow tones against a dark brown background in her depiction of sandhills.

As with all of this artist’s works, this painting revolves around the sacred site of Mina Mina , the land in the remote Tanami Desert of which Dorothy is custodial owner. Made up of two enormous soakage areas and endless sandhills, here Dorothy and her aunts (Napanangkas) perform rituals of dance and song as part of their passing on of Jukurrpa. Like the sandhills in constant flux across her the artist’s country, this painting depicts her interpretation of the waves of movement by the sandhills across the landscape.

Mina Mina is the artist’s custodial country, located near Lake Mackay in the Tanami Desert, north of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory of Australia. 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 Desert Oak trees ( Allocasuarina decaisneana ) now stand where these digging sticks once were.

This painting by Dorothy comes with our "Certificate of Authenticity" that includes a lovely selection of the artist at work on the painting, Sandhills (Cat 13704DN).